A U.S. military court ruled that bump stocks, or devices that can increase the rate of fire in some semi-automatic firearms, are not machine guns despite the federal government in 2018 having issued the rule. The U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals on Sept. 9, in the case of U.S. v. Ali Alkazahg, said that the 2018 order that “directed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives [ATF] to issue a new interpretation of a rule—that contradicted the ATF’s previous interpretation—governing legislation from the 1930s.” “This Executive-Branch change in statutory interpretation aimed to outlaw bump stocks prospectively, without a change in existing statutes,” the court ruled, suggesting that the ATF bypassed Congress by creating a law when only Congress has that power under the Constitution. In the case, Akazahg, a Marine Corps private, was convicted of possessing two machine guns, which were actually bump stocks, in violation of Articles 83, 107, …