Considered opinionWhy a congressional ban on bump stocks is unlikely

By Russell Berman

Published 9 October 2017

Even in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, it appeared that nothing could shake the immovable stalemate over gun rights in Congress – but a strange thing happened: Republicans started talking about tightening regulations on firearms. But until Congress can prove otherwise, and Republicans in particular move from rhetoric to legislation, it’s reasonable to expect this latest bipartisan opening to meet a similar fate to the bipartisan move, in the wake of Sandy Hook, to expand background checks: That attempt, led by Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania) and Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), could not overcome a Senate filibuster.

The AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, easily converted to fully automatic // Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Even in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, it appeared that nothing could shake the immovable stalemate over gun rights in Congress – but a strange thing happened: Republicans started talking about tightening regulations on firearms.

Russell Berman writes in The Atlantic that in the days since a gunman killed fifty-nine people and injured more than 500 at a Las Vegas outdoor concert, a surprising number of GOP lawmakers have voiced support for taking action against the device known as a bump stock, which allowed the gunman to fire off bullets from his semiautomatic at a much faster—and therefore more lethal— clip.

Berman continues:

Taken together, the flurry of interest in bump stocks has raised the possibility that the Las Vegas massacre might spur congressional action where previous atrocities of gun violence, from the 2012 killing of 27 schoolchildren at Sandy Hook Elementary School to last year’s slaughter of nine worshippers inside a Charleston church, have not.

Should advocates of gun control be optimistic that this time might actually be different?

Not yet.

Republicans indeed expressed genuine alarm after watching videos of the shooting that showed the apparent capability of bump stocks to turn a gun that is legal in the United States—a semiautomatic rifle—into something resembling a fully automatic weapon, which is illegal. And the NRA’s statement seemed to grant permission to its allies in Congress to take at least a modest step toward additional restrictions. “I think they should be banned,” Representative Bill Flores of Texas, a former chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, told The Hill. “There’s no reason for a typical gun owner to own anything that converts a semi-automatic to something that behaves like an automatic.”

But there are no plans for Congress to move quickly on legislation, nor is there consensus within the GOP that the House and Senate should act at all. In part, that’s because most Republicans, many of whom own guns, had no idea what bump stocks were before Sunday’s shooting. “A lot of us are just coming up to speed,” Ryan told reporters on Thursday. “We just need to do more research to make sure the spirit of the law is being upheld.”

….

This is not the first time Republicans have cracked open the door on gun-control legislation. After the school shooting at Sandy Hook, GOP Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia proposed a compromise to expand background checks. But despite aggressive lobbying by then-President Barack Obama and polls indicating public support, the amendment could not overcome a Senate filibuster.

A ban on bump stocks would be an even more limited change to the law. But until Congress can prove otherwise, and Republicans in particular move from rhetoric to legislation, it’s reasonable to expect this latest bipartisan opening to meet a similar fate.

Read the full article: Russell Berman, “Why a Congressional Ban on Bump Stocks Is Unlikely,” The Atlantic (7 October 2017)