The US Supreme Court rejected the latest bid to thwart a Trump administration rule that requires the destruction or forfeiture of so-called bump stocks that convert semiautomatic rifles to machine gun-like weapons.
The challenge denied Monday involved an appeal by individuals and gun suppliers who argued that the regulation amounted to a “taking” of property under the Fifth Amendment and required “just compensation.”
The justices in the past have rejected similar challenges to the 2018 bump stock ban, which was passed in response to the mass shooting in Las Vegas the previous year.
The Supreme Court let stand a ruling by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which said the regulation was not subject to the Constitution’s Takings Clause because it was designed to protect health and safety.
A handful of states urged the justices to intervene, saying the case raised “important questions about how the ever-growing administrative state threatens” both property and gun rights.
The Justice Department, however, noted that the court has long held that the government “may prohibit the possession, or compel the destruction, of property that is ‘injurious’ to the ‘safety of the community’ without effecting a compensable taking.”
There was no noted dissent from the Supreme Court decision not to take up the case, despite that the court expanded Second Amendment rights last term for the first time in more than a decade.
The case is McCutchen v. United States, U.S., No. 22-25, denied 11/14/22.
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