The Trump administration is expected in the coming days to announce a federal ban on bump stocks, devices that can make semi-automatic firearms fire at a rate similar to automatic weapons, according to multiple reports.
The ban is expected to come after the Justice Department earlier this year proposed a rule to classify bump stocks and similar devices as prohibited under federal law, as they allow the "shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger," like banned machine guns, CNN reported, citing unidentified U.S. officials.
"Bump stocks turn semiautomatic guns into illegal machine guns," an unidentified senior Justice Department official told CNN on Wednesday. "This final rule sends a clear message: Illegal guns have no place in a law-and-order society, and we will continue to vigorously enforce the law to keep these illegal weapons off the street."
President Donald Trump said as recently as last month that a ban on bump stocks was forthcoming, The New York Times reported.
“We’re knocking out bump stocks,” Trump said during an Oct. 1 press conference. “I’ve told the NRA. I’ve told them: Bump stocks are gone.”
The Justice Department opened a review of the devices in the wake of the 2017 shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas that left nearly 60 people dead. Authorities said a gunman had bump stocks equipped to several weapons on Oct. 1, 2017, when he fired on festivalgoers.
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