NJ banning bump stocks

New Jersey is moving forward with legislation to ban bump stocks, like the one a gunman used in the Las Vegas concert shooting to turn a semiautomatic weapon into a rapid-shooting gun.

The proposal, made in the days after the October massacre that killed more than 50 people and injured 500, advanced in an Assembly committee Thursday.

The legislation would tighten New Jersey’s already tough gun laws. Under current law, it’s a crime to possess an assault rifle — a semiautomatic gun with certain features mimicking military weapons — or the parts designed or intended to turn guns into such firearms.

That means the stocks already cannot legally be used on weapons, but Democrats want to outlaw possessing bump stocks at all.

Lawmakers say their bill would make selling, shipping or disposing them punishable by up to five years in prison, a $15,000 fine or both.

“It doesn’t take much to see the connection between the availability of technology that makes mass murder possible and the tragic pattern of mass murder in the United States,” said Democratic Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto.

The legislation comes just as the state begins to transition from Republican Gov. Chris Christie to Democrat Phil Murphy.

Murphy has promised to sign the bill if it gets to his desk.