Trump Targets Devices That Make Guns Deadlier
President Trump announced his support for regulating items like the so-called bump stock, which was used in the mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Photo by Tom Brenner/The New York Times.
Watch in Times Video »
WASHINGTON — President Trump ordered the Justice Department on Tuesday to propose regulations to ban so-called bump stocks, which can convert a semiautomatic gun into an automatic weapon like the one used last year in the massacre of concertgoers in Las Vegas.
Interactive Graphic
What Is a Bump Stock and How Does It Work?
“Bump stocks” are attachments that enable semiautomatic rifles to fire faster, almost like machine guns. Twelve of the rifles found in the hotel room of the Las Vegas gunman were fitted with the devices.
Speaking at the White House days after a mass shooting at a Florida high school that killed 14 students and three teachers, Mr. Trump said that he had directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to develop the regulations, saying that the step would help prevent future mass shootings.
“We cannot merely take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference,” Mr. Trump said at a ceremony as he conferred the medal of valor on public safety officials. “We must actually make a difference.”
After the shooting in Las Vegas, congressional Republicans and the N.R.A., who for years have resisted changes in gun control legislation, expressed a willingness to consider a ban on bump stocks.
The White House had said last year that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was performing a review of whether it could regulate bump stocks after that shooting, which killed dozens of people. Even as Mr. Trump was speaking on Tuesday, a bureau official told a reporter that the review was continuing.
But the president said that he had signed a memorandum on Tuesday effectively short-circuiting that review.
Continue reading the main story
Powered by WPeMatico