Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said he respected the Supreme Court‘s decision to repeal former President Donald Trump’s ban on bump stocks but would not address the reversal further.
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that a Trump-era ban on bump stocks overstepped authority, and ruled it unlawful. The Trump administration banned bump stocks after the firearm accessory, which increases the fire rate of weapons, was used in the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
In an appearance on ABC News’s This Week, Scott was asked whether he was concerned about the ruling.
“We trust and believe and respect the decision of the Supreme Court,” Scott answered before pivoting to talk about crime rates. “What we need to focus on … is the violence that we’re seeing across this nation.”
“Under Donald Trump, we actually respected law enforcement,” Scott said. “Under Joe Biden, we’ve seen the movement to defund the police, leaving communities like the one I grew up in devastated and ravaged by a wave of violent crime that we have not seen literally in five decades.”
Host Jon Karl disputed his statistics, leading to a back-and-forth before the host brought the conversation back to bump stocks. He mentioned Scott’s previous support for the ban and asked if he would favor a law from Congress banning them.
“Well, I’m strongly in support of the Second Amendment, but we’re going to focus,” Scott began before Karl interrupted and tried to center the response on bump stocks specifically.
“We’re going to focus on the priorities of the American people,” he continued. “And what the priorities of the American people are today, is to focus on closing our southern border. Under Donald Trump, we had a precipitous drop in illegal border crossings … under Joe Biden, we’ve seen an explosion. Ten million illegal immigrants have invaded our country, leading to migrant crime that we just saw just yesterday.”
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“Ok, so you’re not going to answer that question,” Karl concluded.
Scott has been floated as one of the leading contenders for Trump’s running mate. He endorsed Trump soon after dropping out of the 2024 presidential race and has emerged as a prominent surrogate for the former president’s campaign.
