Three federal appeals courts have come to different decisions over the ban, which took effect after a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017.
Topline
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to consider the Biden administration’s question of whether it is legal for the federal government to ban bump stocks—which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly and were used in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting—after lower courts gave conflicting opinions on the legality of the ban originally put in place by the Trump administration.Key Facts
The Supreme Court will review two conflicting decisions from U.S. Courts of Appeals over the legality of the ban; at issue is whether the bump stock—an accessory that alters a semi-automatic gun—can be classified as a machine gun and therefore banned under the National Firearms Act and Gun Control Act.
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued on behalf of the Biden administration that bump stocks fall under the definition of machine guns, arguing that they allow the shooter’s stationary finger to bump into the trigger, firing another bullet, according to CNN.
Earlier this year the conservative Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas invalidated the ban on bump stocks and said a ban would need to be passed by Congress, with Judge Jennifer Elrod writing an opinion saying the ban did not give a “fair warning that possession of a non-mechanical bump stock is a crime.”
Separately Judge Robert Wilkins of the U.
