In the wake of the deadly Las Vegas shooting, three House Republicans sent a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) urging the agency to reevaluate the legality of bump stocks or devices used to increase the discharge rate of a firearm.
Police found at least a dozen rifles equipped with bump-fire stocks in the hotel room from which a gunman killed 59 people in Las Vegas on Sunday night. The devices allow semi-automatic guns to mimic fully automatic weapons.
The letter, penned by Reps. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, with co-leaders Mike Gallagher, R-Wisconsin, and Martha McSally, R-Arizona, stated: “Now is not a time to politicize a tragedy or bring politics into our grieving, but it is a time to reflect on what has happened and how we can work constructively on what can be done to curb the impact of these evil, deranged attackers.”
“The ATF must re-evaluate these devices, and it is my hope that they conclude these mechanisms violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the law. In the meantime, my colleagues and I will consider legislative options, because these fully-automatic simulator devices have no place in civil society,” the letter added.
Dianne Feinstein, a Democratic senator of California earlier on Wednesday introduced a bill that would ban the devices in the Senate while Rhode Island Democratic Rep. David Cicilline introduced the same legislation in the House.
Other congressional Republicans have likewise started to show cautious interest Wednesday in legislation that would restrict devices that enable semi-automatic rifles to fire rapidly like automatic weapons, according to several reports.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has not yet commented since the tragedy.
Wal-Mart and Cabela’s, two of the nation’s largest gun sellers, appear to have halted online sales of the devices early Wednesday. The items were said to be selling out on many Internet sites.
