Trump announces proposed ban on ‘bump stocks’

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 automatic weapons.

President Donald Trump announced the new regulation by a tweet Friday, a day before the March for Our Lives — organized by young people after the mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla. — is planned to take place in Washington and hundreds of other locales nationwide. The marchers are calling for stricter gun control measures.

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

The devices 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 rounds per minute.

Stephen Paddock used bump stocks last October in the shooting that killed 58 people in Las Vegas, and wounded hundreds more, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

“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,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a statement.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives published a new proposed rule Friday, following Trump’s instructions Feb. 20. It will take effect after publication in the Federal Register and a 90-day comment period.

The ATF previously ruled that the devices don’t fit the legal definition of “machine guns,” which are illegal under federal laws, and that it could not restrict bump stocks without a new law from Congress.

Manufacturers of the devices have letters from ATF on their websites to reassure customers that the devices are legal.

If the rule is made final, owners of bump stocks would be required to turn them in or destroy them.

In the new proposed rule, the ATF says it has now concluded that the prior decision “does not reflect the best interpretation of the term ‘machine gun’ ” under the law.

In his tweet, Trump castigated the Obama administration for that prior ATF ruling, criticizing his predecessor for not limiting firearms after years in which Trump assailed Obama as opposing gun rights. “BAD IDEA,” he wrote. “We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.”