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Thursday, March 12, 2020

Supreme Court won't hear challenge to ban on bump stocks

"Bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic firearms to fire rapidly like machine guns, will remain banned by the federal government in most instances after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a case challenging recently imposed regulations," reports Guns & America.

Some states banned bump stocks after one was used in a deadly October 2017 Las Vegas shooting, and in December 2018, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives declared that bump stocks essentially turned a semi-automatic firearm into a fully automatic "machinegun." Since machineguns are tightly regulated at the federal level, that made bump stocks and similar devices effectively illegal, Jeremy Bernfeld reports for Guns America, a two-year partnership among 10 publicly owned media outlets to report on firearms and related issues.

Many gun owners chose not to fight the ban, pointing out that DIY bump stocks can be made easily, and that the law was difficult to enforce. However, some gun-rights activists sued to challenge the ban,. Lower courts upheld it and the Supreme Court opted not to hear the case. Though the case might appear to be about the Second Amendment, Justice Neil Gorsuch said that the case narrowly focused on a legal doctrine that prevents courts from overruling some federal regulations.

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