Action on Bump Stocks

It’s a promise kept: Team Trump is preparing to announce a legal ban on bump stocks. With training, a bump stock lets you fire a semi-automatic rifle at rates approaching full-automatic; the device helped gunman Stephen Paddock slaughter 58 and wound many more in Las Vegas.

In reaction to that Oct. 1, 2017, atrocity, President Trump vowed to see bump stocks outlawed and then ordered the Justice Department to issue regulations getting it done, a process that necessarily took months.

As CNN reports, the ban will require owners to turn over or discard their bump stocks within 90 days — at least, if it holds up to the inevitable court challenges.

The Justice Department argues that the rule is legal because it falls under the court-tested prohibition of automatic weapons, since bump stocks allow similar continuous firing. But the National Rifle Association or other gun-rights types will surely fund litigation challenging that logic, delaying the ban for months at least.

To be fair, similar challenges would’ve come even if Congress had banned bump stocks by law, as we recommended — though the legal clock would have started ticking sooner. (By pushing for regulatory action instead, House Speaker Paul Ryan probably added to his party’s major losses in suburban districts across the country on Election Day.)

When Ryan passed on legislative action, we worried that we were seeing a play for time on the theory that the horrors of the Vegas massacre would eventually fade from public consciousness. We’re glad to see that Trump remains dedicated to delivering the policies he promises.