‘Bump stocks’ ban is proposed

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday announced a new regulation that would outlaw “bump stocks,” the mechanical device used by the Las Vegas shooter to make his rifles fire like more lethal automatic weapons.

President Trump announced the proposal in a Twitter message a day before the so-called March for Our Lives, which was organized by young people after the mass slayings at a Parkland, Fla., high school. Marches are planned for Washington and hundreds of other locales nationwide to call for stricter gun control measures.

Congress has held hearings since the Parkland shootings on Feb. 14, but Republican leaders have shown little interest in passing new laws.

Bump stocks use a semiautomatic rifle’s recoil to allow the stock to slide back and forth with each shot, dramatically accelerating the rate of fire to as much as 800 bullets per minute.

Stephen Paddock used bump stocks in October in the rampage that killed 58 people and wounded hundreds of others in Las Vegas, the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

The Parkland killer did not use a bump stock.

“After the senseless attack in Las Vegas, this proposed rule is a critical step in our effort to reduce the threat of gun violence that is in keeping with the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress,” Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives published a proposed rule Friday.