Trump orders rifle ‘bump stocks’ banned

UNITED STATES: US President Donald Trump has ordered a ban on gun accessories known as ‘‘bump stocks’’ that allow semiautomatic rifles to be fired more rapidly, taking the administration’s first concrete measures in response to a Florida school shooting last week.

Trump said yesterday he had signed a memorandum directing the Justice Department to come up with rules prohibiting ‘‘all devices that turn legal weapons into machineguns’’.

The massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people died, has ignited new calls for restrictions on guns, especially AR-15-style rifles like the one used by the suspect, Nikolas Cruz. He didn’t use a bump stock, though the accused sniper in a mass shooting in Las Vegas last October used such a device in an attack that killed more than 50 concertgoers.

Asked if Trump would support renewing a federal assault weapons ban that expired more than a decade ago, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said: ‘‘We haven’t closed the door on any front.’’ She also said it ‘‘hasn’t yet been determined’’ whether there should be a federal age limit for purchasing semiautomatic rifles, like the one Cruz bought as a teenager.

A group of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School travelled to the state capital yesterday to call for a ban on AR15-style rifles. Students from the school are also planning a march on Washington, DC on March 24.

However, a move to have the Florida House of Representatives immediately consider a bill banning assault weapons and highcapacity magazines was rejected on mostly party lines.

Some Marjory Stoneman Douglas students, who had met with lawmakers earlier in the day, were in the public gallery watching while the move was rejected.

The bill, sponsored by Democrat Carlos Guillermo Smith, of Orlando, has already been referred to three subcommittees or committees. Smith said he was infuriated at Ross Spano, a Republican representative who has refused to hold a hearing on the assault weapons ban.

Spano, however, has devoted extensive time to his own bill, which declares pornography a public health risk. That bill was debated on the House floor yesterday.

‘‘He is saying pornography is more important than the epidemic of gun violence,’’ Smith said.

PHOTO: AP Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hug survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting before boarding buses in Parkland, Florida to travel to the state capital for a rally calling on the Florida state legislature to consider a package of gun...