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NRA calls for a review of device used in Las Vegas shooting that increases a gun's firepower

White House 'open' to regulation
NRA calls for a review of device used in Las Vegas shooting that increases a gun's firepower
Posted at 11:50 AM, Oct 05, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-05 17:47:48-04

In a statement on Wednesday, the National Rifle Association, called for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to review whether bump stocks comply with federal law.

Bump stocks, a device legal in some states that can be installed on a sem--automatic weapon to allow it to fire more rounds per minute, was used by a gunman in a Las Vegas shooting on Sunday that killed 58 people and injured more than 500 more.

RELATED: See how bump stocks made semi-automatic weapons more like machine guns

 

"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 statement, released by NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and it's Institute for Legislative Action executive director Chris Cox, also calls for Congress to pass the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, which would allow carry a concealed handgun into or possess a concealed handgun in another state that allows individuals to carry concealed firearms.

The White House also said Thursday that it was opening to regulating the devices — but wants to hear more information on the matter before making a final determination.

"Right now, our focus, as we've said over the last couple of days, is on healing and uniting the country," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Thursday.

Trump has been a staunch advocate for gun rights, and spoke earlier this year at the National Rifle Association's annual conference in Atlanta. The gun rights group said just before Sanders spoke that it supported a review of bump stocks, and suggested they should be subject to additional regulation.

Top Republicans and Democrats in Congress have identified new curbs on the use of such accessories as the gun control measure most ripe for success in the aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting. Sanders on Thursday called the bipartisan support for such a measure a welcome development.

The White House, Sanders said, wants to be "part of that discussion and certainly open to that moving forward."

But she cautioned against moving toward any single gun control measure before the investigation into the Nevada incident is complete.

"I think we all need to take a step back," she said during the daily White House press briefing. "Before we can run out and talk about the preventions ... we have to determine what caused it."

"We haven't gotten that far down the road," she said.

Earlier this week, Trump appeared open to discussion on new gun control measures, but said enough time had not passed since the rampage to open up the conversation.

"We're not going to talk about that today. We won't talk about that," Trump said inside a Las Vegas trauma center, where he'd met with doctors and nurses who tended to victims.

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