NRA supports restriction

In wake of Las Vegas massacre, gun group now wants to limit rapid-fire adaptor

WASHINGTON» The long-simmering debate in this country over gun rights took a dramatic turn Thursday when the National Rifle Association unexpectedly joined an effort to restrict a device used to accelerate gunfire in the Las Vegas massacre.

The NRA’s announcement gave political cover to a growing number of Republicans who have indicated a willingness to consider regulating “bump stocks,” devices that allow a legal semiautomatic rifle to mimic the rapid discharge of a fully automatic weapon. Less clear is whether the move signals an opening for further action on an issue that has divided the nation and produced virtually no new restrictions in recent years despite a steady stream of mass shootings.

“The NRA believes that devices de- signed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,” read a statement issued by the powerful organization Thursday.

Federal law enforcement officials have said that Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock fired weapons outfitted with bump stocks Sunday, leaving 58 dead and hundreds injured in a matter of minutes. Experts have said that audio of the attack makes clear that the

shooter unleashed a torrent of bullets faster than he could have fired without adapting his rifles.

As the country’s largest gun rights group, the NRA exerts considerable influence among conservative voters who support the organization - and on the GOP’s approach to gun policy. Many Republicans have operated under the fear that opposing NRA positions could lead to primary challenges. But public opinion is also on the minds of Republicans as they head into a midterm election year that is expected to be contentious. Regulating bump stocks could help the party combat perceptions that it has done nothing to address the mass shootings.

The sheer carnage of Sunday’s attack is fueling lawmakers’ interest in the issue, said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. “Look at Las Vegas. That’s how I account for it,” McCain told reporters. “Americans are horrified by it. They’re horrified, and they should be.”

Still, even after the group’s announcement Thursday, only a handful of Republicans had stepped forward to consider examining bump stocks.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, RWis., House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., all said Thursday that lawmakers will consider further restrictions on the devices. More than a dozen Senate Republicans said they were open to the possibility. A few of Congress’s most conservative lawmakers — as well as some of its most avid supporters of gun rights — said the restrictions were worth consideration.

“I didn’t know what a bump stock was until this week,” Ryan said at a news conference in Chestertown, Maryland. “A lot of us are coming up to speed . . . . Having said that, fully automatic weapons have been outlawed for many, many years. This seems to be a way of going around that, so obviously we need to look how we can tighten up the compliance with this law so that fully automatic weapons are banned.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders welcomed the NRA’s position and said President Donald Trump wants to be part of a “conversation” about cracking down on bump stocks. “We’re open to having that conversation,” Sanders said during Thursday’s White House press briefing. “We think we should have that conversation, and we want to be part of it moving forward.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stuck out as one of the only members of Republican congressional leadership who had not indicated he was on board. He told reporters Tuesday that it is “completely inappropriate to politicize an event like this” and declined to answer further questions on the subject.

The NRA’s position Thursday reflected an about-face on a longstanding position of opposing most gun restrictions, a position founded on the philosophy of the “slippery slope” — that allowing such legislation would beget still more, until law-abiding gun owners were deprived of their Second Amendment right to bear arms.

On Thursday, the NRA blamed the Obama administration for authorizing the sale of bump stocks in 2010, based in part on the manufacturer’s claim that the device was intended to assist people with “limited mobility” in their hands. At the time, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives concluded that the bump stock “has no automatically functioning mechanical parts or springs and performs no automatic mechanical function when installed,” according to a letter from the bureau that the manufacturer, Slide Fire Solutions, posted to its website.

In the joint statement from the NRA’s executive vice president and chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, and Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, the group called on ATF to again review “whether these devices comply with federal law.”