Washington (CNN) The Supreme Court denied a request Friday to temporarily block the Trump administration's rule banning bump stocks.

In a brief, unsigned order, the court denied the request from gun rights groups to place the regulation, which took effect April 3, on hold for the plaintiffs who are challenging the ban in lower courts. It is the third time justices have been asked to issue such an order.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch said that they would have voted to put the rule on hold as it applies to the challengers. Thomas has repeatedly written that lower courts are snubbing the rights of gun owners.

A bump stock is an attachment that makes it easier to fire rounds from a semi-automatic weapon by harnessing the gun's recoil to "bump" the trigger faster.

The Justice Department issued a rule in December interpreting an existing prohibition against fully automatic weapons to also cover bump stocks. Owners were given 90 days to turn in or destroy them, and that period ended last month.

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