WASHINGTON — The National Rifle Association on Thursday called on the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to review whether bump-fire stock devices like the ones used in the Las Vegas shooting massacre comply with federal law.
A bump stock is a device that enables semiautomatic rifles to fire rapidly like automatic weapons.
Jill Snyder, special agent in charge of the ATF, said Tuesday that the gunman in Las Vegas rigged 12 semiautomatic rifles with bump stocks.
“The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,” NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and executive director Chris Cox said in a joint statement.
The full statement, the first from the organization since the massacre left 58 dead and more than 500 wounded, opened by addressing “the evil and senseless attack in Las Vegas.”
It added the “first response from some politicians” for stronger gun control laws “will do nothing to prevent future attacks.”
In 2010, the ATF under then-President Barack Obama did not regulate the device.
In 2010, Texas-based Slide Fire pitched the device to federal regulators as a way to assist people with disabilities to “bump fire” from an AR-15-type rifle.
Breitbart News, led by former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, noted Wednesday that the device was approved by Obama’s ATF.
Because a bump stock is not a firearm, the ATF classified it as firearm part — so the ATF wrote in a letter that it approved it because it doesn’t have any real jurisdiction over firearm parts.