Photo: Michael Saechang
House Speaker Paul Ryan has today signaled that he is open to discussing a ban on bump stocks seemingly siding with some Republicans who have stressed that the party should at the least discuss banning them.
“I didn’t even know what they were until this week, and I’m an avid sportsman,”
“So I think we’re quickly coming up to speed with what this is. Fully automatic weapons have been banned for a long time. Apparently this allows you to take a semiautomatic and turn it into a fully automatic. So clearly that’s something we need to look into.” Ryan said on Thursday morning.
The speaker joins a number of Republican lawmakers who have seemingly departed from the party policy of opposing new gun control laws and instead opted to speak out against such devices, with some like Sen. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin voicing support for an outright ban on the controversial devices.
“Automatic weapons are illegal,” “To me, that is part of that same type of process. So I have no problem banning those.” Johnson told reporters.
Echoing Johnson’s comments, Sen. John Cornyn who owns “a lot of guns” said the idea of a device which turns semi-automatic weapons into illegal automatic weapons is an “obvious concern” and that looking into the idea of banning them is “a legitimate question”
Bump stocks are devices that allow weapons to fire at an increased rate, similar to the rate of an automatic firearm. The device allows a semi-automatic weapon to fire hundreds of rounds a minute, further increasing the danger posed by such weapons.
Increasing pressure is being put on the government to outlaw the devices in the wake of the Las Vegas mass shooting where 58 people were brutally murdered after it was revealed that the gunman Stephen Paddock had fitted the devices to 12 of his weapons.
By Aaron O’Leary – Media Bias Fact Check
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