Trump bans bump stocks
Black Sphere executive editor Kevin Jackson on the recent Chicago shootings and how the city can address its problem with gun violence.
The Trump administration is officially banning so-called bump stocks – an attachment that allows semiautomatic rifles to fire more rapidly.
In a reversal of an earlier ruling, the Justice Department will now classify bump stocks as machine guns – which are strictly regulated – because “such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger.” The device allows a weapon to fire at nearly the rate of an automatic firearm.
A bump stock works by allowing a weapon to slide back and forth between the shoulder and trigger finger more quickly.
Gun owners will either have to surrender or destroy the devices after the final ruling is issued. The law will go into effect 90 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
The move was prompted by public outcry over a number of recent mass shootings, including the Las Vegas shooting, where the gunman attached bump stocks to his rifle. More than 50 people were killed, while many more were injured.
President Trump suggested this decision was coming: After the Parkland, Florida, shooting, Trump ordered the Justice Department to look into regulating the devices.