The Bump Stock Ban Stemmed From a Horrific Mass Shooting

The ban on bump stocks overturned by the Supreme Court on Friday was a rarity in an era of deep division over gun violence: a restriction that won support from Democrats, Republicans and even the National Rifle Association.

Bump stocks are attachments that allow a semiautomatic rifle to fire faster. The effort to limitthem, which former President Donald J. Trump put in place by executive order in 2018, gained support after a gunman killed 60 people at a concert in Las Vegas. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

What happened in Las Vegas?

On the night of Oct. 1, 2017, a gunman who had smuggled rifles and reams of ammunition into his suite on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel opened fire. His target was a crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest country music festival.

The gunman killed 58 people and himself that night. Hundreds more concertgoers were injured in the frantic rush to escape the long, rapid-fire bursts of gunfire that rained down from the gunman’s room at the Mandalay Bay Resort. Two of the wounded later died.

How did bump stocks play a part?

About a dozen of the gunman’s rifles that were later found by investigators had been modified with devices known as bump stocks.

These accessories can cost as little as $99. They replace a rifle’s standard stock, which is the part held against the shoulder. The bump stock frees the weapon to slide back and forth rapidly, harnessing the energy from the kickback shooters feel when the weapon fires to make a semiautomatic rifle fire more like a machine gun.