US Government Bump Stock Ban Struck Down by Court

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), points to a photograph of a rifle with a bump stock during a news conference to announce proposed gun control legislation at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Oct. 4, 2017. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The U.S. government was wrong when it said a ban on machine guns applied to bump stocks, a federal court ruled on Jan. 6.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in 2018 claimed that two laws banning machine guns meant bump stocks were illegal, reversing its earlier position. The move, backed by then-President Donald Trump, came after a man carried out a mass shooting in Las Vegas, using bump stocks to fire more rapidly.