The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a ban on gun attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns violates federal law. The justices said Friday they'll hear arguments next year over a gun bump stocks regulation the Justice Department implemented after the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. Federal appeals courts have come to different decisions about whether the regulation defining a bump stock as a machine gun comports with federal law. The justices say they'll review the Biden administration's appeal of a ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that invalidated the ban.

Authorities are scouring hundreds of acres of family-owned property, sending dive teams to the bottom of a river and scrutinizing a possible suicide note in the second day of their intensive search for an Army reservist accused of fatally shooting 18 people in Maine. Two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that authorities found an apparent suicide note in a home associated with Robert Card on Thursday. They said his cellphone also was found there. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. Schools and businesses remained closed Friday in the city of Lewiston, where the shootings took place, and in surrounding areas.

Mass shootings broke out at festivals, block parties and other gatherings in a handful of cities this week as the U.S. celebrated the Fourth of July. Gun violence that flared in Washington, D.C., Louisiana, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Texas and Florida left more than a dozen dead and about 60 wounded — including children as young as 2 years old. Police say at least three people were killed and 10 others wounded late Tuesday night in Shreveport, Louisiana. Nine people outside enjoying the Independence Day festivities in the nation's capital were shot and wounded early Wednesday. In Florida, a 7-year-old was fatally shot during an altercation between two groups gathered for celebrations along a causeway that crosses Tampa Bay.

Police say the Nashville school shooter legally bought seven firearms in recent years and hid the guns from their parents before killing three children and three adults at a Christian school. Police on Tuesday said the shooter did not specifically target their victims during the shooting at The Covenant School on Monday. The victims included three 9-year-olds and the head of the school. Shooter Audrey Hale was a former student at the school. Authorities say Hale was not known to them before the attack. Police say Hale was under a doctor's care for an undisclosed emotional disorder.

Authorities say a female shooter wielding two "assault-style" rifles and a pistol killed three students and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville in the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country growing increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools. The female suspect was killed by police during a confrontation Monday at The Covenant School. Authorities believe the shooter was a former student. The Covenant School has had an enrollment of about 200 students from preschool to sixth grade in recent years. The killings come as communities around the nation are reeling from a spate of school violence.