NRA Says No to Banning Bump Stocks

Any hopes that the NRA would be supporting legislation banning so-called "bump stocks" following the massacre last week in Las Vegas were likely dashed when representatives from the group told the Sunday political shows that their group is merely open to "regulating differently" the device that allows a semiautomatic rifle to fire at nearly the rate of an automatic, the Hill reports. "We don't believe bans ever worked on anything," NRA Executive Director Chris Cox told Fox News Sunday. The group believes there should be no legislative ban, like the one sponsored by California Senator Dianne Feinstein, but rather a directive from the Trump administration regulating the devices, which were used by Stephen Paddock during his attack in Las Vegas on Oct. 1 that left 58 people dead and around 500 wounded.

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told Face the Nation that the bump-stock issue is one for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and that any legislation coming from Congress risks becoming a "Christmas tree" to push bans of weapons, the USA Today reports. The NRA's defiance comes as even some Republicans in Congress have called for a ban on bump stocks and Donald Trump has left the door open for a debate on the subject, CNN reports. "We'll be looking into that in the next short period of time," Trump told reporters last Thursday. (More NRA stories.)