Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock used a bump stock attachment when he murdered 58 people.
Following the massacre, lawmakers of all political stripes, gun control groups, and even gun rights groups like the NRA agreed the bump stock, which enables rapid fire shooting on some semi-automatic rifles, was not fit for public use.
“Fully automatic weapons have been outlawed for many, many years. This seems to be a way of going around that, so obviously we need to look how we can tighten up the compliance with this law so that fully automatic weapons are banned,” said Speaker Ryan at the time.
But that was then.
Less than two months later (a veritable eternity in modern news cycles) and evil bump stocks are seemingly long forgotten. Where tragedy typically spurs prompt action, lawmakers and even the ATF have yet to take any action on bump stocks.
From the WaPo:
But no action has been taken by Congress. Instead, Republican lawmakers punted the responsibility to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which in turn says it cannot regulate bump stocks unless Congress changes the law.The only thing that has happened with bump stocks since the Las Vegas shooting is that a leading manufacturer of the device, Slide Fire, resumed selling them. Slide Fire had announced in the wake of the shooting that it was temporarily suspending sales.Several retailers, including Walmart, removed bump stocks from their shelves. But other gun dealers reported that sales of bump stocks spiked after Las Vegas and some stores sold out of the devices quickly.“We would like to take the time to thank all of our customers for their patience and support throughout this past month,” Slide Fire said in an email when the company began selling bump stocks again Nov. 1. The company did not respond to requests for comment.Four days after the Las Vegas shooting, Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said they would consider restrictions on bump stocks.
According to the WaPo’s report, lawmakers are punting to the ATF and the ATF continues to kick the ball back to Congress. There have been letters back and forth, but typical government disfunction has killed any movement meant to restrict the bump stock.
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