Trump Directs DOJ to Ban Bump Stocks in Response to Gun Control Outcry
George Frey/Getty Images
by AWR HAWKINS
Breitbart.com
President Donald Trump directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday to finalize plans to ban bump stocks.
The Hill reports that Trump mentioned that the “process” of banning bump stocks began in December.
It was December 28, 2017, when Breitbart News reported that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was accepting public comment on proposed regulatory gun control that would alter the definition of “machinegun” to cover machineguns and non-machineguns, too. This shift allows the ATF to use the National Firearms Act (1934) to control firearm accessories like bump stocks in the same way it controls actual machine guns and devices that convert semiautomatic firearms into machine guns.
Gun control outlet The Trace reported that the public comment period ended with roughly 36,000 comments, of which more than eight out of ten voiced opposition to bump stock gun control.
Yet Trump is supporting regulatory action against the firearm accessories.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins tweeted:
President Trump announces he has directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to propose regulations that would ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) February 20, 2018
Trump also said he expects regulations banning bump stocks to “be finalized … very soon.”
Bump stocks were not used in the February 14 attack in Florida. Nor were they used in the Texas church attack (November 5, 2017), the Alexandria attack (June 14, 2017), the Orlando attack (June 12, 2016), the San Bernardino attack (December 2, 2015), the Umpqua Community College attack (October 1, 2015), the Lafayette movie theater attack (July 23, 2015), the Chattanooga attack (July 16, 2015), the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal attack (Jun 17, 2015), the Santa Barbara attack (May 23, 2014), the Fort Hood attack (April 2, 2014), the D.C. Navy Yard attack (September 16, 2013), the Aurora movie theater attack (July 20, 2012), the Gabby Giffords (January 8, 2011) attack, or the Virginia Tech attack (April 16, 2007), among others.
In fact, the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas attack is the only high profile public attack in which a bump stock was used criminally.