WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court refused Thursday to upend President Donald Trump's ban on bump stocks, a device that allows rifles to mimic automatic weapons.

The ban prohibits owning, buying, selling or "otherwise transferring" bump stocks. It went into effect Tuesday, but gun rights groups asked the court to halt it while federal appeals courts review the policy.

Chief Justice John Roberts turned down one such effort that day. The second was referred to the full court by Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, but it was denied without any public dissent.

The weapon was used in a mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed 58 people and injured 851 in October 2017. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

In February 2018, Trump instructed the attorney general to regulate bump stocks' use, and in December, Justice Department officials issued the ban, giving owners 90 days to either turn bump stocks over to federal agents or melt, shred or crush them.

Government officials defended the ban, which remains under challenge in federal appeals courts, as an addendum to a ban on machine guns. Gun owners' groups contended it could lead to more prohibitions.

Bump stocks combine two legal devices, a plastic stock and a firearm, that together function like a machine gun. The bump stock harnesses the recoil of the rifle to accelerate trigger pulls, technically “bumping” the trigger for each shot after it bounces off the shooter’s shoulder.

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