Supreme Court turns away challenge to ban on gun ‘bump stocks’

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge by Second Amendment advocates to the Trump-era ban on “bump stock” devices that modify semi-automatic rifles to fire more rapidly.

The court’s move leaves intact the federal ban that was enacted in 2017 after a gunman in Las Vegas used the rapid-fire accessory in the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.

The court’s denial of two separate petitions dealt a blow to the challengers, which included the Second Amendment group Gun Owners of America and a Utah gun lobbyist.

The move comes after the conservative majority Supreme Court electrified Second Amendment advocates in June by voting 6-3 along ideological lines to expand the right to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense.

However, the court had previously declined to take up a separate legal effort by gun rights groups in 2020 to overturn the bump stock ban.

The Trump-era prohibition was put in place by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after gunman Stephen Paddock used the device to kill 58 people and wound hundreds during a Las Vegas concert, before killing himself.