State GOP delegation tepid on bump stock regulations
Tennessee’s senators suggested Thursday they were open to regulating “bump stocks,” devices that effectively turn semi-automatic rifles into rapid-fire machine guns.
Their tepid statements, both saying they were open to reviewing proposed legislation, came hours after the National Rifle Association issued its own statement supporting stricter regulations for the firearm accessory.
“I am carefully reviewing the bump stock legislation introduced in the Senate this week,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Maryville, said in a statement.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Chattanooga, said through a spokesman that he, too, believes Congress should review the use of bump stocks.
The NRA released a statement Wednesday afternoon calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to “immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law.
“The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,” the statement read.
Investigators in Nevada have linked the devices to the shooter in the attack on concert-goers in Las Vegas Sunday.
Stephen Paddock, 64, used the device, which allows a gun to shoot hundreds of bullets per minute, when he killed 58 people
and injured more than 500 others as he sprayed festival goers with bullets from the 32nd floor of a nearby hotel, police have said.
It was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Tennessee’s two Democratic congressmen, Jim Cooper of Nashville and Steve Cohen of Memphis, both said through spokesmen Thursday they support proposed legislation banning bump stocks.
Cooper said he would join more than 100 co-sponsors on a bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I.
Cohen, meanwhile, delivered a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday, calling for a slew of gun reforms, including banning bump stocks.
“We could pass laws to eliminate bump stocks that apparently this murderer used to make his weapon into, effectually, an automatic weapon where he could shoot hundreds of bullets at a time, which he did,” Cohen said Wednesday. “Bump stocks should be illegal and Sen. Diane Feinstein had a bill to make them illegal in 2013 and she has one again.”
Two of the state’s Republican members of Congress, Scott DesJarlais, and Chuck Fleischmann, did not say whether they would support such measures. A spokesman for DesJarlais said only he “remains focused on mental health.”
Fleischmann, in a sitdown with the USA Today Network-Tennessee, said he wanted to study the bill before committing to a decision.
Fleischmann was present at a congressional baseball game in June in Alexandria, Va., when a gunman opened fire on the lawmakers, severely injuring House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, a congressional aide, a lobbyist and a Capitol police officer.
“I’ve actually had some experience actually being there under fire without being armed and the like, and I heard today that this bill was coming forward,” Fleischmann said. “I want to study the bill. I want to study the subject and I want to hear from my constituents so that I can come to a very strong conclusion, and what I told a reporter today, I will tell you the same thing: I think we actually have to look at what these bad people are doing, whether it’s with a gun or a car, a bomb, a knife, whatever their weapon.”
Tennessee’s five other Washington lawmakers did not return requests for comment.