The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a ban on 'bump stocks' like those used in the nation's deadliest mass shooting, when 60 people were killed and 500 wounded at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas in 2017. In a 6-3 decision, the justices rejected the views of the Biden and Trump administrations, and ruled that bump stocks could not be prohibited as illegal machine guns because the trigger action operates in a different way.
Since then, Congress has revised and updated the ban several times. The case decided Friday did not involve the 2nd Amendment and gun rights. Instead, it turned on how machine guns were described when Congress prohibited their sale. They were defined as weapons which fired automatically with a single pull of the trigger. In upholding the ban, the justices agreed that a bump stock device allows a semiautomatic rifle to keep firing without pulling the trigger.