Supreme Court Asked to Block Bump Stock Ban From Taking Effect

(Bloomberg) -- Gun-rights advocates asked the U.S. Supreme Court to temporarily halt a new federal ban on bump stocks, the attachments that can make a semiautomatic rifle behave like a machine gun. The ban is scheduled to take effect on Tuesday.

Two separate groups of challengers filed papers at the high court Monday, seeking emergency intervention to stop the prohibition until federal appeals courts have ruled on the policy. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives issued the ban in December.

Previously an obscure gun accessory, bump stocks became infamous after the device was linked to the Las Vegas concert massacre on Oct. 1, 2017. The gunman owned multiple such devices, law enforcement authorities said. Fifty-eight people were killed in the attack, the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, John Harney

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