Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Friday that the Department of Justice is officially proposing a change to federal regulations to ban bump stock devices, devices that transform legal, semi-automatic firearms into automatic weapons. A bump stock device was used in last year’s deadly Las Vegas shooting.
Specifically, the DOJ is looking to change the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regulations to clarify that bump stocks do actually fall under the definition of “machinegun.” Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he would ban the devices. Mr. Trump announced that the regulations were being crafted last month.
Mr. Trump tweeted about this step in banning bump stocks on Marine One, on his way to Mar-a-Lago.
In announced the proposed regulation change, Sessions said the proposed rule is a “critical step in our effort to reduce the threat of gun violence.”
“Since the day he took office, President Trump has had no higher priority than the safety of each and every American,” Sessions said in a statement. “That is why today the Department of Justice is publishing for public comment a proposed rule-making that would define ‘machinegun’ to include bump stock-type devices under federal law—effectively banning them. 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. I look forward to working with the president’s School Safety Commission to identify other ways to keep our country and our children safe, and I thank the President for his courageous leadership on this issue.”
The proposed rule comes a day before thousands are expected to march on Washington, D.C., and cities across the country to protest gun violence, after the Parkland, Fla., shooting that left 17 dead.
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