Final rule · 2026-08926

Revising Machine Gun Definition in Response to Supreme Court Decision

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives ("ATF") is amending Department of Justice ("Department") regulations in response to the Supreme Court's decision in Garland v. Cargill. The Supreme Court held that ATF exceeded its statutory authority in its December 2018 final rule titled "Bump-Stock-Type Devices" by classifying a bump stock as a "machine gun" because a semi-automatic rifle equipped with a non-mechanical bump-stock-type device is not a "machine gun" under the National Firearms Act. Accordingly, ATF is removing from the three regulatory definitions of "machine gun" the two sentences that incorporated bump stocks into those definitions.