Revising Machine Gun Definition in Response to Supreme Court Decision

What it does

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.

The Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Bureau's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

3 parts of Title 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

27 CFR 447, 27 CFR 478, 27 CFR 479

Wording on eCFR: the day before it took effect and from the day it took effect (first part listed).

Compared with

The Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Bureau has published 12 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 0 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

Before this

No earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 1140-AA60 since Jan. 1, 2025.

What happens next and when

This final rule is effective on May 6, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Title 27 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register