Photo by George Frey/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The National Rifle Association is calling for a federal review of bump stocks, a weapon modifier that allows semi-automatic weapons to fire faster.
The NRA, in their first statement since the Oct. 1 shooting in Las Vegas, said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives should “immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law.”
“The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,” the statement reads.
The full statement, issued jointly by NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre and the head of their legislative arm Chris Cox, opens by addressing “the evil and senseless attack in Las Vegas.”
It says that the “first response from some politicians” to call for stronger gun control laws “will do nothing to prevent future attacks.”
The NRA’s statement comes hours after House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said in an interview with MSNBC that a ban on bump stocks is “clearly something we need to look into.”
Florida Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo told ABC News that he hoped to introduce bipartisan legislation to ban bump stocks as soon as Thursday. “The goal is to prohibit these deadly devices that caused so much death and destruction in Las Vegas earlier this week,” he said. “Most members on both sides of the aisle agree that this is a blatant circumvention of the law and we want to close this loophole.”
During a press briefing on Thursday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that the White House would be open to such a conversation.
“We certainly welcome that,” she said. “We’d like to be a part of that conversation. We would like to see a clear understanding of the facts. We’d like to see input from victims’ families, from law enforcement, from policy makers. And we’re expecting hearings and other important fact finding efforts on that and we want to be a part of that discussion and we are certainly open to that moving forward.”
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