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NRA backs regulation of 'bump stock' device used by Las Vegas gunman | NRA backs regulation of 'bump stock' device used by Las Vegas gunman |
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In its first statement since the mass shooting in Las Vegas, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has called for additional regulations on "bump stocks" – the devices that likely allowed the Las Vegas gunman to fire faster, killing more people. | |
"The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulation," NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and Executive Director Chris Cox said in a statement. | |
Bump stocks can effectively change semi-automatic weapons into fully automatics by utilising the weapon's recoil effect. Some allow semi-automatic guns to shoot hundreds of rounds per minute. | |
The devices were approved by the Obama administration's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 2010, but the NRA is now asking for that decision to be reviewed. | |
"The National Rifle Association is calling on the [ATF] to review whether these devices comply with federal law," Mr La Pierre and Mr Cox said. | |
The statement is out of character for the NRA, which is considered the country's most powerful gun lobbying group. The group usually maintains a low profile in the wake of mass shootings, as it had in the days following the Las Vegas massacre. | |
President Donald Trump had been similarly silent on gun control in recent days, telling reporters he would "talk about that on a later date". | |
But White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Thursday that she welcomed the NRA's latest statement, adding that the administration is "certainly open to having that conversation." | |
The Las Vegas shooting – the deadliest in modern US history – appears to have shifted the opinion of some pro-gun Republicans, too. | |
“I own a lot of guns and as a hunter and sportsman. I think that’s our right as Americans, but I don’t understand the use of this bump stock and that’s another reason to have a hearing,” Senator John Cornyn, the No 2 Republican in the Senate, told reporters. | |
Republican Representatives Paul Ryan, Robert Goodlatte, Carlos Curbelo, Mark Meadows and Bill Flores have all called for investigations into the devices, too. | |
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, a long-time gun control advocate, has already introduced a bill banning the sale and possession of bump stocks. | |
But the NRA has not gone so far as to ally themselves with pro-gun-control politicians. | |
"Unfortunately, the first response from some politicians has been to call for more gun control," Mr La Pierre and Mr Cox said, adding: "Banning guns from law-abiding Americans based on the criminal act of a madman will do nothing to prevent future attacks." |