It turns out the NRA really isn’t in favor of gun control laws after all, the pro-gun rights organization came out Thursday against legislation that would ban bump stocks — the firearm accessory used by the gunman in the Las Vegas shooting.
The Nation Rifle Association’s position against any type of ban comes a week after the pro-gun rights group said it would be in favor of additional regulation on the device that converts semi-automatic rifles into fully automatic weapons, allowing them to shoot hundreds of rounds per minute.
It stopped short of agreeing to a legislative answer, though, instead calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for a regulatory fix.
“What the NRA has said is we should take a look at that, see if it’s in compliance with federal law, and it’s worthy of additional regulation,” NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre said on Fox News at the time.
Wayne LaPierre comments on @NRA‘s statement on “bump stocks.” https://t.co/n9l9QtVUOB pic.twitter.com/WCZwE54iQ2
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 6, 2017
But despite the NRA’s suggestion, bills that would ban the device have been making their way through both the House and Senate in the wake of the Oct. 1 mass shooting that left 59, including the gunman, dead after he opened fire on the crowd of a sold-out concert from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.
“The NRA opposes the Feinstein and Curbelo legislation,” Jennifer Baker, the director of public affairs for the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, told The Hill on Thursday.
Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo of Florida and Massachusetts Democrat Seth Moulton introduced a bipartisan bill in the House earlier this week that would ban the “manufacture, possession, or transfer” of bump stocks or similar devices.
California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced her own bill last week that would ban the “sale, transfer, importation, manufacture or possession of bump stocks, trigger cranks and similar accessories that accelerate a semi-automatic rifle’s rate of fire,” according to a statement.
Intended to make shooting easier for disabled people, bump stocks have been unregulated since 2010.
