Bump stocks are devices that turn semiautomatic firearms into illegal automatic weapons. A 2018 regulation put forth by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms banning bump stocks has recently faced multiple court challenges, with three federal circuit courts of appeal declining to invalidate it. In a challenge before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a three-judge panel of the court also upheld the rule. However, a full court reversed its decision, saying that the law banning machine guns did not unambiguously encompass bump stocks. The case is now before the Supreme Court.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has joined a coalition of 22 other attorneys general urging the Supreme Court to uphold that federal rule banning bump stocks. The coalition asserts that the rule aligns with longstanding policies prohibiting automatic weapons and argue that overturning it would pose a threat to public safety and the safety of law enforcement officers.
In 2017, fifty-eight people were killed at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas by a man using weapons fitted with bump stocks. In response, the Trump administration issued a regulation clarifying that a 1986 law making it a crime to own a machine gun also applied to bump stocks.