Bump fire stalks, their roll in the Vegas shooting, and legislation related to them

The recent October 1st shootings in Vegas on a crowd of concert goers were performed with the assistance of a bump-fire stock. This stock allows the rifle to travel freely along the rod of the stock as it recoils, and in its return action the trigger is depressed again, causing it to fire and repeat the cycle, essentially turning a semi-auto rifle into an automatic weapon.

It didn’t take long for bills to be proposed to Congress banning this type of stock, as its existence is obviously to subvert the automatic weapons ban. It seems obvious that this should be something that is banned, especially in light of it being used to take so many lives in Vegas.

The NRA has mounted an opposition to the bills in congress banning the stocks, arguing instead for more strict regulations on the stocks. What these regulations would entail is still to be determined.

This would certainly lead to some interesting regulations, as it would essentially be allowing modifications to a rifle that enable automatic fire, while still having automatic weapons be illegal in general. The creative wording necessary for the changes proposed by the ATF and NRA are yet to be seen.