Supreme Court allows bump stock ban

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday declined to stop the Trump administration from enforcing its ban on bump stock devices, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire in rapid succession, similar to machine guns. The ban took effect Tuesday.

President Donald Trump said last year that the government would move to restrict bump stocks in response to an October 2017 shooting in Las Vegas in which a gunman used the devices in an attack on concertgoers from his hotel room window. Shooter Stephen Paddock was able to fire more than 1,000 rounds in 11 minutes, killing 58 people and injuring more than 800 others before fatally shooting himself.

Gun rights advocates have filed several lawsuits to try to stop the ban, but courts so far declined to do so. Bump stock owners had 30 days beginning Dec. 26, 2018, to either destroy the devices or hand them in to a field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.