WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration Tuesday banned bump stocks, the firearm attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like machine guns and were used during the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
The regulation gives gun owners until late March to turn in or destroy the devices. After that, it will be illegal to possess them under the same federal laws that prohibit machine guns.
Bump stocks became a focal point of the gun control debate after they were used in October 2017 when a man opened fire from his Las Vegas hotel suite into a crowd at a country music concert, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more.
The regulation was signed Tuesday by Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. It will take effect 90 days after it is published in the Federal Register, which is expected to happen Friday.
Bump stock owners will be required to either destroy them or surrender them to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a senior Justice Department official said. It is impossible to know just how many bump stocks Americans own because the devices aren’t traceable, but ATF has estimated that between 280,000 and about 520,000 have been sold since 2010.
Investigators expect most owners will comply with the new rule and ATF will take action against those who don’t, the official said. But there’s no surefire way to know whether owners are complying. The official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump was “once again fulfilling a promise he made to the American people.” Trump had promised the ban in March, saying the devices “turn legal weapons into illegal machines.”
Shortly afterward,
