(NewsNation) — News of the Supreme Court refusing to take up two cases involving challenges to a Trump-era ban on bump stocks Monday comes just days after the fifth anniversary of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting October 1 and President Joe Biden’s call for additional gun control Saturday.
SCOTUS declining to hear the case is both a win for gun control advocates and a surprise from the conservative majority of Justices who, just this past June, expanded gun-possession rights, weakening states’ ability to limit the carrying of guns in public.
“Jill and I mourn with all those who lost a piece of their soul on October 1st, 2017,” Biden said in a press release. “May God bless those taken from us and comfort the loved ones of the fallen. And may we resolve to turn our heartbreak into action.”
The Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks took effect in 2019 as a result of the mass shooting. The incident at a country festival is the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history
“From the Nevada desert, we heard the same cry that we’ve heard in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, Charleston, Parkland, Uvalde, Buffalo, and too many neighborhoods to count: Do something,” Biden added. “And, my administration has been working tirelessly to heed that call.”
The good news for gun control advocates piggybacks off of the Biden administration signing into law the country’s first major gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years.
The management of bump stocks is not the only thing that changed after the Las Vegas shooting.
Because of the unprecedented volunteer effort aiding the more than 850 people were hurt before the gunfire stopped — mainly the University Medical Center of Nevada — the Air Force’s medical staff stepped in to help.
Being that they had just trained for a mass casualty days before, the Air Force was of great help, combining with the hospital to treat over 100 patients, including more than 20 surgeries within the first 24-hours alone.
“We found out that if anybody actually arrived University Medical Center with a pulse at all, they lived,” Ginny Gardner, the VP of nursing at Health First, said to NewsNation’s “Rush Hour.”
Gardner says she re-trained her medics a few days later on vehicle loading, litter carries, tirage as well as handling the flood of victims coming in private cars — the newest and most significant part of the training.
“There’s going to be so many people who want to help and we’re going to start loading people in their own personal vehicles and bringing them to the closest place to help. And I think that was my biggest lesson,” Gardner said.
The triage lessons are being taught all of the country today.
MGM Resorts International agreed to pay up to $800 million dollars to victims and their families after that shooting.