North Carolina's Supreme Court has declared that "flash-bang" grenades often used by law enforcement officials are weapons of "mass death and destruction.''

Friday's decision reverses an appeals court finding that flash bang grenades found in a man's car after a traffic stop were not devices capable of causing mass death and destruction as outlined in North Carolina law.

The appeals court said such devices must be capable of causing catastrophic and deadly damage.

But the state Supreme Court noted that the language in the law defines a weapon of mass death and destruction as "any explosive or incendiary" bomb or grenade.