Trump Administration Bans Bump Stock Device Used in Las Vegas Mass Shooting that Killed 58
A gun attachment used in the mass shooting that killed 58 people at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas last year will be banned under a new federal regulation announced Tuesday by the Trump administration.
Owners of bump stocks — a firearm accessory that allows non-automatic weapons to be fired at a rate that mimics that of automatic ones — will have have 90 days to destroy or turn in the devices, according to the regulation put forth by the U.S. Department of Justice, reports The New York Times.
In addition, the change will block gun owners from being able to register the accessory after the new regulation takes effect with its publication in the Federal Register, likely on Friday, reports NPR.
Ten states previously banned the plastic device in the wake of the Oct. 1, 2017, attack in Las Vegas, reports NPR.
It’s unclear how many gun owners will be affected but the Department of Justice previously reported that up to 520,000 bump stocks had been purchased in the United States since 2010, reports USA Today.
President Trump’s request for the DOJ to ban the attachment overrides a earlier position taken by officials with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who had concluded the attachments were not subject to federal regulation, reports CNN.
In the Las Vegas attack, authorities said gunman Stephen Paddock fired down from his 32nd-floor hotel suite at the Mandalay Bay resort and casino into a nearby crowd below of some 22,000 people gathered for the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. He killed 58 people and injured hundreds of others, then shot himself before police closed in on him.
It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
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The new rule — signed by acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker — redefines bump stocks as “machine guns” which already are forbidden for private ownership under existing federal law, according to NPR.
Reuters reports that Justice Department officials believe the change will withstand any challenge that might come from gun ownership groups that oppose the measure, which was drafted after the agency collected nearly 190,000 comments on the proposal.
Trump had directed the Justice Department to ban the bump stock attachments last March, after another mass shooting claimed 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14.
