PAWTUCKET – Democratic Policy and Communications Committee Chair David N. Cicilline (RI-01) and thirty cosponsors introduced legislation today to permanently ban the manufacture, possession, sale, or transport of bump stocks and acceleration devices like the ones used to murder 58 people in Las Vegas just two years ago.

“Bump stocks are devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to operate like machine guns. These devices result in the rapid firing of bullets and are capable of causing tremendous carnage.” said Cicilline, who serves as Vice Chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. “We saw the devastation that these devices can cause when 58 innocent men and women were brutally murdered by a gunman in Las Vegas in October 2017, and we have an obligation to make sure that these devices are not available to anyone. The only way to do that is by passing legislation banning bump stocks and trigger cranks.”

“My heart still aches for the victims of the 1 October shooting,” said Congresswoman Dina Titus (NV-01). “In Las Vegas, thoughts and prayers are not enough and neither are flimsy executive actions that get tied up in the courts. I’m proud to help introduce this commonsense legislation to address gun violence. If President Trump is serious about banning bump stocks, I hope he will join us in supporting this bill.”

“After we learned the horrific scale of the Las Vegas shooting was amplified by bump stocks, leaders should have moved swiftly to stop them from falling into dangerous hands,” said David Chipman, Giffords Senior Policy Advisor and former ATF Special Agent of 25 years. “But for too long, lawmakers dragged their feet while bump stocks remained on the shelf. While the nation took a first step toward banning them by giving ATF the power to regulate these devices, it’s not enough. In an effort to avoid prolonged judicial disputes, we applaud Rep. Cicilline and Rep. Titus for stepping up to lead a new effort to ban bump stocks and all devices manufactured to allow shooters to accelerate the speed at which they can fire a gun."

The High Speed Gunfire Prevention Act prohibits the sale of bump stocks, and any devices that are designed to accelerate the fire of semiautomatic weapons. When a weapon is modified with a bump stock, the shooter can fire at a rate of 400 to 800 rounds per minute, mirroring the fire rate of fully automatic weapons that fire multiple bullets with a single trigger pull. The bill also bans trigger cranks, a rotating-trigger actuator attachment, and other devices that allow shooters to discharge several bullets per revolution similar to a Gatling gun.

Fully automatic firearms are highly-regulated and require an exhaustive background check and approval from the buyer’s local police department before the purchase can be approved. In many states, including California, New York, and Rhode Island, possession of automatic weapons is prohibited. The sale of bump stocks was approved by the U.S. Government in 2010, but a 2018 Department of Justice rule required owners to turn in or destroy their bump stocks. The High Speed Gunfire Prevention Act would codify that ban and extend it to all devices that dramatically increase a gun’s rate of fire.