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The Supreme Court has rejected a federal ban on “bump stock” devices that enable semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly.

In a six-to-three ruling on Friday, the justices upheld a lower court’s decision favoring a gun shop owner and gun-rights advocate who argued that a US agency had incorrectly interpreted a federal law prohibiting machineguns to include bump stocks. The ruling saw the conservative justices in the majority, with liberal justices dissenting.

The controversial rule was initially imposed in 2019 by the Trump administration following the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, where bump stocks were used to kill 58 people at a country music festival.

The case hinged on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) interpretation of federal law, which defines machine guns as weapons capable of automatically firing more than one shot per trigger pull. Justice Clarence Thomas stated, “We hold that a semi-automatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a ‘machine gun’ because it cannot fire more than one shot ‘by a single function of the trigger.’ And, even if it could, it would not do so ‘automatically.’ ATF, therefore, exceeded its statutory authority by issuing a rule that classifies bump stocks as machine guns.”

President Joe Biden condemned the court’s decision, referencing the 2017 tragedy and calling for Congress to take further action. “Today’s decision strikes down an important gun safety regulation. Americans should not have to live in fear of this mass devastation.” Former President Donald Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, said Trump respected the court’s decision despite initially being behind the bump stock ban. She added that Trump was a “fierce defender” of gun rights.