A Hamilton County judge has struck down an ordinance passed last year banning bump stocks within Cincinnati city limits.

Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman’s ruling was filed Monday, records show, although there was no written decision.

The ordinance, which City Council passed in May 2018, banned the possession, sale and use of "trigger activators" like bump stocks that attach to semi-automatic rifles and are designed make them operate similar to fully automatic weapons.

Two groups, Buckeye Firearms Foundation and Ohioans for Concealed Carry, sued the city in June 2018.

“This ban was completely unjustified and a great concern for gun owners,” Dean Rieck, executive director of Buckeye Firearms Foundation, said in a statement. “Under Ohio law, local municipalities are not permitted to enact firearms laws that conflict with state law. And clearly, outlawing guns or gun parts, is a clear violation of state law.”

The devices gained notoriety when they allegedly were found in the hotel room of Stephen Craig Paddock who the FBI says killed 58 people and wounded hundreds in 2017 during a country music festival in Las Vegas. Paddock was able to fire more than 1,000 bullets into the crowd in about 11 minutes.

In an email to city officials obtained by The Enquirer, City Solicitor Paula Boggs Muething said there is "ample basis" for an appeal.

"The city is within its home rule authority to ban trigger activators, and we intend to appeal the decision," she wrote.

The city is expected to appeal Ruehlman’s decision. Ruehlman already had issued a preliminary injunction suspending enforcement of the ordinance.

Council member and sponsor of the ban, P.G. Sittenfeld, said after the suit was filed that he and the city’s law department were confident the ban was “on strong, solid legal ground.”

Buckeye Firearms Foundation said other municipalities, including Columbus, “have attempted to defy state law in this manner, only to lose in court.” A Franklin County judge last year said the Columbus ban was unconstitutional.

“These bans are not about public safety,” Rieck said. “They are merely political theater and an excuse for city councils to 'virtue signal' for publicity and personal aggrandizement.”

In court documents, the city said a federal law will take effect in March that will prohibit possession of bump stocks throughout the country and require people who have them to destroy or take them to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives office.

“The city bans what federal law will imminently prohibit,” the city said.