The National Rifle Association (NRA) has announced it would back further regulation of “bump stocks”, a mechanism that Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock used to turn his semi-automatic rifles into almost fully automatic weapons.
“The NRA believes that devices intended to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,” NRA leaders Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox said.
“In an increasingly dangerous world, the NRA remains focused on our mission: strengthening Americans’ Second Amendment freedom to defend themselves, their families and their communities.”
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The NRA leaders blamed the Obama administration for “approving the devices for sale ‘on at least two occasions’, and called on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) ‘to immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law’,” The Guardian says.
The group’s call for the ATF, an executive branch agency, to review the legality of bump stocks rather than having Congress draft new legislation limits the likelihood of gun control being debated by lawmakers.
“The group’s decision to be for further regulation of bump stocks is clearly a strategic move aimed at avoiding any more sweeping or comprehensive attempts at gun control,” CNN says.
However, “a bill to ban bump stocks was submitted to the US Senate on Wednesday by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein,” the BBC reports.
The White House has signalled its support for the NRA’s proposal, almost immediately after the release of the group’s statement.
“Members of both parties and multiple organisations are planning to take a look at bump-stocks. We welcome that and would like to be part of that conversation,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
