The Department of Justice will change regulations to categorize bump stocks as "machine guns" under federal law — effectively banning them. This announcement comes the day ahead of the nationwide March for Our Lives rally.

Trump tweeted ahead of the DOJ's release: "Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns."</s>Trump ordered the Justice Department to work toward a ban after the Parkland shooting

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump says his administration will “BAN” bump stock devices that “turn legal weapons into illegal machines.”

The Justice Department announced Friday that it has started the process to amend federal firearms regulations to clarify that federal law defines bump stocks as machine guns.

Trump had ordered Justice to work toward a ban after the Florida high school shooting. Bump stocks enable guns to fire like automatic weapons, and were used in last year’s Las Vegas massacre.

Trump tweeted Friday: “Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period.”

The government determined in 2010 that bump stocks couldn’t be regulated unless Congress changed the law.</s>
• The Department of Justice on Friday announced a proposal to ban bump stocks – the devices used in last year’s Las Vegas massacre.
• Bump stocks are devices that can be installed onto semiautomatic rifles, accelerating the gunfire.
• President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed the Obama administration for a 2010 ruling that found that bump stocks weren’t technically “machineguns” and therefore couldn’t be banned.

The Trump administration announced a new proposal on Friday to effectively ban bump stock devices, which were used to accelerate the gunfire of the Las Vegas mass shooter last year.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement that the Justice Department intends to amend a regulation from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to ensure that bump stocks fall under the definition of a “machinegun” under federal law, thereby banning the devices.

“After the senseless attack in Las Vegas, this proposed rule is a critical step in our effort to reduce the threat of gun violence that is in keeping with the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress,” Sessions said in a statement.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the decision on Twitter, blaming the Obama administration’s ATF for ruling in 2010 that bump stocks didn’t fall under the “machinegun” definition.

“Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period,” Trump tweeted Friday afternoon. “We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.”

The Justice Department’s statement on Friday also indicated that if the proposal is adopted, people who currently own bump stocks would have to give them up or destroy them.

“If the [notice of proposed rulemaking] is made final, bump-stock-type devices would be effectively banned under federal law and current possessors of bump-stock-type devices would be required to surrender, destroy, or otherwise render the devices permanently inoperable,” the statement said.

A bump stock is a device meant to be installed onto a semiautomatic firearm, such as AR-15, AK-47, and Saiga models, replacing the rifle’s standard stock.

Unlike automatic firearms, which fire continuously while the trigger is pulled, semiautomatic weapons fire one round per trigger pull. But the bump stock harnesses the recoil energy produced when a shot is fired from a semiautomatic rifle to “bump” the weapon back and forth between the shooter’s shoulder and trigger finger.

Since the shooter is still pulling the trigger for each shot, federal officials previously argued that the firearm technically remains semiautomatic, even as it achieves a rate of fire similar to that of an automatic one.

It’s unclear how the Justice Department is justifying the regulation change, as firearms outfitted with bump stocks still require multiple trigger pulls. But Sessions’ statement on Friday said that bump stocks “allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger.”

The Trump administration has been reviewing the legality of bump stocks since December 2017.

Shortly after a mass shooting at a Florida high school on February 14 this year, Trump issued a memorandum directing the Justice Department to craft a rule that would ban the devices.</s>President Donald Trump announced Friday that the administration would ban bump stocks and “all devices” that turn otherwise legal weapons into “illegal machine guns,” keeping a promise made amid a bipartisan gun control debate.

Moments before he departed Joint Base Andrews for his Florida property at Mar-a-Lago, and hours after signing a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, the president tweeted about the new policy.

“Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns,” he wrote on Friday.

A bump stock is an attachment that allows a semi-automatic rifle to achieve a fully automatic weapon’s “cyclic firing rate to mimic nearly continuous automatic fire,” according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Semi-automatic rifles with bump stocks can fire hundreds of rounds per minute, according to experts.

The bump stock moved to the foreground in the national discussion of gun control last fall, after Stephen Paddock used the attachment when he opened fire at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas. He killed 58 people and injured hundreds more.

The president, for months, has urged the Justice Department to ban firearm modifiers, directing Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month to implement new federal guidelines “very soon.”

On Friday, Sessions announced that bump stocks fall within the definition of “machine gun” under federal law, as the devices allow a semiautomatic firearms to achieve a continuous firing cycle with the single pull of the trigger.

WHAT ARE BUMP STOCKS? HOW THEY WORK AND WHY TRUMP WANTS THEM BANNED

“Since the day he took office, President Trump has had no higher priority than the safety of each and every American,” Sessions said in a statement. “That is why today the Department of Justice is publishing for public comment a proposed rulemaking that would define ‘machine gun’ to include bump stock-type devices under federal law – effectively banning them.”

Sessions cited the “senseless” Las Vegas attack, noting that the rule is a “critical step” in the effort to reduce the threat of gun violence.

The White House released a memo last month that directed the Justice Department to propose the rule.

Trump wrote in the memo, “Although the Obama administration repeatedly concluded that particular bump stock type devices were lawful to purchase and possess, I sought further clarification of the law restricting fully automatic machine guns.”

The ATF made bump stocks legal in 2010, when, at the time, the bureau concluded that bump stocks didn’t convert a semi-automatic firearm into one that is fully automatic, meaning it was not equivalent to machine guns that are regulated under the National Firearms Act, which dates back to the 1930s.

Since the shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school last month, the president has proposed numerous measures in the gun control debate, including banning bump stocks, arming and training teachers and school officials, and raising the age requirement to purchase a gun from 18 to 21.

The president, though, has touched off tensions with the National Rifle Association, which endorsed him during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump has said, repeatedly, that he and the NRA “don’t have to agree on everything.”</s>In announcing the Justice Department's proposal to ban bump stocks in a tweet on Friday, President Trump blamed his predecessor for permitting the devices to be sold.

"Obama Administration legalized bump stocks," the president tweeted, "BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a rule change that expanded the definition of machine gun in federal law to include "bump stock-type devices."

Bump stocks, which use the recoil of a semi-automatic firearm to simulate automatic fire, came into the national spotlight after a gunman in Las Vegas used the devices in a massacre that killed 58 people and injured more than 500.

"After the senseless attack in Las Vegas, this proposed rule is a critical step in our effort to reduce the threat of gun violence that is in keeping with the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress," Sessions said in a statement Friday.

So, is Trump correct in his assertion that former president Barack Obama "legalized bump stocks?"

The answer is: sort of.

More: 'Bump stocks' may be new to you, but federal officials have grappled with them for years

In 2010 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined that because bump stocks don't have any moving parts, they are a "firearm part" could not be regulated as a firearm under existing gun laws. The ATF reached a similar conclusion in 2012.

Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told PolitiFact that it is accurate to say the Obama administration approved the sale of bumps stocks.

"Not because they liked it, but because the law did not permit them to prohibit it," Winkler told the fact-checking organization, which explored the issue after the National Rifle Associated said the in October that the Obama administration approved bump stocks on two occasions.

Rick Vasquez, a former ATF official who took part in the decision to approve bump stocks, told Politifact that to blame the administration implies that Obama or his then-attorney general Eric Holder were involved in the determination.

"We never had any political people come down to our office saying we must or must not approve," Vasquez said.

Trump is partly wrong about machine guns being illegal. Congress banned the sale of new machine guns for civilian use in 1986 but possession of older automatic weapons is still allowed with a special permit.

Earlier this month, Sessions sent the changed machine gun definition to the Office of Management and Budget, continuing a process that began Feb. 20 when Trump signed an executive order directing Sessions to get the ball rolling on a bump stock ban.

The proposal will undergo a 90-day review period before becoming final. After that, if the rule is made final, bump stock owners will be required to surrender or destroy the devices.</s>WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions proposed new regulations Friday that effectively ban so-called bump-stock devices that allow rifles to mimic fully automatic machine gun fire.

The move comes a day before hundreds of thousands of people are expected to descend on the capital to call for stricter gun control in the wake of last month's mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school.

Bump stocks were not used in the Valentine's Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead, an attack that has since launched a reinvigorated campaign for tighter gun laws.

President Trump, however, called for the Justice Department to act on the bump-stock devices, which were attached to rifles used in the Oct. 1 massacre in Las Vegas, in which 58 concert-goers were slaughtered by a lone gunman firing from a high-rise hotel.

"After the senseless attack in Las Vegas, this proposed rule is a critical step in our effort to reduce the threat of gun violence that is in keeping with the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress," Sessions said in a written statement.

Sessions' action opens a 90-day public comment period before the regulation can become final.

A long controversial firearm accessory, the devices use the recoil action of a semi-automatic firearm to speed the pace of gunfire, mimicking a fully automatic weapon.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had reviewed the device over the years and had issued opinions determining that the accessories were lawful.

Congress banned the sale and manufacture of machine guns for civilian use in 1986, and machine guns in circulation before then are now tightly regulated.

Trump took on the bump-stock issue in the aftermath of last month's Florida shooting, as students, victims' families and gun-control advocates launch their push for a re-examination of current gun laws.

"We must do more to protect our children," Trump said then, promising that the school safety would be a top priority for the administration.</s>In a tweet, President Trump announced that he was directing DOJ to reverse a 2010 decision by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that classified bump stocks as firearm parts

United States President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to issue a new rule banning the use of bump stocks.

In a tweet, President Trump announced that he was directing DOJ to reverse a 2010 decision by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that classified bump stocks as firearm parts so the devices could be banned under current laws that prohibit owning fully automatic weapons, The Hill reported.

Further, he blamed the Obama administration for the legalisation of bump stocks.

"Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns," President Trump wrote on Twitter.

The decision comes after a letter was sent by the Republican senators in October last year urging the administration to review the decision after a mass shooter used the device in killing 58 people at a country music concert in Las Vegas.

It was the deadliest attack to ever take place on US soil, since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Bump stocks are generally used to modify semi-automatic weapons so that they can fire more rapidly.

"Unfortunately, we are all now keenly aware of how this device operates and believe that this renewed review and determination will keep our citizens safe and ensure that federal law is enforced," the nine Republicans wrote last year.

In the US, fully automatic weapons have been banned since 1986, but bump stocks were described by the ATF in 2010 as "a firearm part and is not regulated as a firearm under the Gun Control Act or the National Firearms Act.'

Last month, President Trump recommended a ban on 'bump stocks' gun devices and directed his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions to make the proposed changes in the country's gun control law, in the wake of the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people and injured 17 others.

19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student, claimed responsibility for the shooting and was expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons. He has been booked on 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Following this, massive protests were held by students across the US to pressurise the Trump administration for tougher gun measures.

Last week, students from more than 3,000 schools took to the streets from Washington to Los Angeles and from New York to Parkland on National Walkout Day to call for action against gun violence.

Organized by Empower, the youth arm of the Women's March movement, the walkouts are the latest show of activism by young people who are now wading into the gun-control debate.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever</s>The Justice Department is proposing rule changes that will effectively ban bump stocks, devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like a machine gun, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Friday.

"After the senseless attack in Las Vegas, this proposed rule is a critical step in our effort to reduce the threat of gun violence that is in keeping with the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress," Sessions said in a statement.

Sessions has been a defender of the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms.

Gunman Stephen Paddock used a bump stock in a massacre last October that killed 58 people and wounded hundreds of others at a music festival in Las Vegas.

Authorities said Paddock’s ability to fire hundreds of rounds per minute over a 10-minute period from his 32nd-floor hotel suite was a major factor in the high casualty count.

In February, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum directing the Justice Department to make the regulatory change.

"As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period," Trump said on Twitter as the announcement was made. "We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns."

The National Rifle Association, the most powerful U.S. gun lobby, supported more regulation of bump stocks but has not endorsed Trump's ban and said previously it was awaiting the publication of the regulation before rendering judgment.

The Justice Department announcement comes as hundreds of thousands of Americans are expected to rally nationwide on Saturday for tighter gun laws in "March For Our Lives" protests led by survivors of the Florida school massacre, which reiginited the debate over Americans' access to guns.

Students from the Parkland, Florida, high school where 17 students and staff were killed on Feb. 14 will be among the 500,000 people who organizers say could rally on Pennsylvania Avenue near the Capitol in Washington.</s>President Donald Trump tweeted Friday that his administration will ban bump stocks devices that "turn legal weapons into illegal machines" and blamed former President Barack Obama for allowing them in the first place.His tweeted comments come a day before student and teen-led nationwide marches calling for gun policy reform.Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a statement on Friday announced the Department of Justice has begun the process to amend federal firearms regulations to clarify that bump stocks should fall under the technical definition of "machinegun" under federal law. Such devices "allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger".The announcement comes a month after the president directed the agency to work on a ban in the wake of a deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida which resulted in the deaths of at least 17 people and left 14 injured.Bump stocks came under intense scrutiny after it was learned they were used in the Las Vegas mass shooting last year that left 58 people and hundreds of others injured.The legal firearm attachments are designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to mimic the actions of a rapid-fire, fully-automatic weapon.In 2010 the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms determined that it could not regulate bump stocks unless Congress changed the laws. Critics of the president's new push think any effort to reverse that ruling will be challenged in court.Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif, who has proposed legislation to ban bump stocks and semi-automatic rifles, has said she believes a legal challenge would ultimately be successful."The ATF currently lacks authority under the law to ban bump stocks," Feinstein wrote in February 20 statement."If ATF tries to ban these devices after admitting repeatedly that it lacks the authority to do so, that process could be tied up in court for years, and that would mean bump stocks would continue to be sold.""Legislation is the only answer," she said.The actions taken Friday by the Justice Department effectively open a rule change for public debate.Following the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida last month, National Rifle Association spokesman Dana Loesch told ABC's This Week that the organization doesn't support a bump stock ban."The NRA doesn't back any ban, the NRA has asked the ATF to do its job and make sure that these classifications are consistent," Loesch told ABC's George Stephanopolous.Sessions said the Justice Department will begin a public comment period on a proposed rule "that would define 'machinegun' to include bump stock-type devices under federal law-effectively banning them."</s>Days after yet another mass shooting sparked a nationwide debate on gun control and an immediate response from lawmakers, President Trump took action.

The president said he signed an order on Feb. 20 directing the Justice Department to ban "bump stocks" and other gun modifiers that make semi-automatic firearms fire faster.

"We must move past clichés and tired debates and focus on evidence-based solutions and security measures that actually work," Trump said during a ceremony to honor the 17 victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

A month later, Trump confirmed the Justice Department is forging ahead with his plan to ban rapid-fire bump stocks.

“Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns,” he explained in a tweet on March 23.

Here's what you need to know about bump stocks, the devices involved in last year's Las Vegas shooting.

How do they work?

A bump stock is an attachment that allows a semi-automatic rifle to mimic a fully automatic weapon's "cyclic firing rate to mimic nearly continuous automatic fire," according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Semi-automatic rifles with bump stocks could fire hundreds of rounds per minute, according to experts.

Yes. The ATF gave its seal of approval under the Obama administration in 2010.

At the time, the bureau concluded bump stocks didn't convert a semi-automatic firearm into one that is fully automatic, meaning it was not equivalent to machine guns that are regulated under the National Firearms Act, which dates back to the 1930s.

Bump stocks are currently legal under federal law. However, it is illegal for U.S. citizens to own fully automatic firearms produced after May 19, 1986, The New York Times reported.

“The classification of these devices depends on whether they mechanically alter the function of the firearm to fire fully automatic,” Jill Snyder, a special agent in charge at the ATF, told The Times. “Bump-fire stocks, while simulating automatic fire, do not actually alter the firearm to fire automatically, making them legal under current federal law.”

But since the Las Vegas shooting, states and cities have increasingly pushed for legislation to ban the devices.

Massachusetts became the first state to pass legislation banning the device after the October incident. The state law, which went into effect Feb. 1, prohibits possession of the device under all circumstances. It also bans the possession of trigger cranks.

New Jersey, as well as large cities such as Denver and Columbia, South Carolina, also have enacted laws prohibiting the sale and possession of bump stocks.

California law already prohibited the sale of bump stocks.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) even called for an immediate review of bump stocks after the Vegas shooting.

"The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations," the NRA said in a statement in October.

What other actions has Trump taken?

Trump assured Americans that something would be done about bump stocks very quickly.

"I'm writing that out myself. I don't care if Congress does it or not," he said on Feb. 26. "You put it into the machine gun category, which is what it is, it becomes, essentially, a machine gun, and nobody is going to be able to -- it's going to very hard to get them."

On March 23, Trump signed a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, which includes several policy changes aimed at curbing gun violence, including the so-called "Fix NICS" measure to strengthen the background check system.

The measure to fix the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) provides additional funding to agencies and states that comply with the system. Those that do not, will be penalized.

More than $2 billion is also allocated to train school officials and law enforcement officers to identify signs of potential threats. This money would also be used to install metal detectors.

Another main action Trump has taken on guns has been to sign a resolution blocking an Obama-era background check rule designed to keep guns out of the hands of certain mentally disabled people.

Obama's rule, which affected an estimated 75,000 people, required the Social Security Administration to forward to the Justice Department the names of certain disabled beneficiaries to be added to an FBI database of individuals ineligible to purchase a firearm.

Fox News' Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Lucia I. Suarez Sang and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The US Department of Justice announces it will reclassify bump stocks as machine guns, effectively outlawing them.