The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday denied an application from gun-rights advocates to delay the Trump administration’s ban on bump stock-type devices, which took effect on March 26.
The court said the application for a stay was denied, but that Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch would have granted it.
The high court has already turned aside multiple petitions to delay the ban on the devices, which attach to semiautomatic weapons to mimic the rate of machine gun fire.
The court also said it would refer a request to grant a more limited stay of five days to allow the petitioners to comply with the ban to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
A panel on the D.C. Circuit court ruled earlier this week that a lower court was correct in denying a preliminary injunction to block the administration’s ban on the devices.
The Firearms Policy Foundation, one of the groups involved in the case, indicated that they plan to seek a rehearing before the full appellate court.
The group and other gun-rights advocates say the Trump administration lacks the authority to regulate the devices, pointing to rulings during the Obama and George W. Bush administrations that the devices weren’t “machine guns” themselves and so Congress would need to approve a new ban.
The public is generally banned from possessing machine guns made after 1986.
But the Trump administration said it took a fresh look at the issue after the October 2017 shooting in Las Vegas, where the gunman used bumps stocks to rain fire down on concertgoers, killing 58 people, and concluded that the devices are machine guns and can be regulated under federal law.
Thus far, the courts have sided with the administration.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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