WASHINGTON, DC – In an effort to prevent mass-shootings, U.S. Senator Jack Reed is calling on Congress to pass legislation to ban gun ‘bump stocks’ this week, after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ideological ruling that invalidated a common sense ban on ‘bump stocks,’ which are rapid fire accessories that effectively convert semiautomatic weapons to weapons of war that are capable of firing hundreds of rounds per minute.  A bump stock was used in the horrific Las Vegas mass shooting of 2017 that killed 60 people and wounded hundreds more.  The gunman in that mass-murder used an assault rifle modified with a bump stock to fire over 1,000 bullets in 11 minutes.

Law enforcement is reporting an uptick in modified guns that have been used to kill and injure dozens of people at a time, in mere seconds, in states across the country.

Reed, who served in the U.S. Army and trained with machine guns, said there is a reason Congress tightened regulation of machine guns back in 1934 and says Congress must act swiftly now to keep up with technology, protect public safety, and prevent future mass-shootings.

“The Republican-appointed justices who issued this ruling badly misfired by striking down the ban on bump stocks.  Bump stocks are designed to make a semiautomatic fire as fast as a machine gun and increase casualties.  I agree with those in law enforcement and the overwhelming majority of Americans who say that these lethal accessories should be banned,” said Senator Reed.  “These conversion devices have no legitimate purpose other than to raise body counts and endanger law enforcement and public safety.  Congress must act on a bipartisan basis to reinstate the bump stock ban and help keep the American people safe.”

Reed is a cosponsor of the bipartisan Banning Unlawful Machinegun Parts (BUMP) Act (S. 1909).  This common sense legislation would prohibit the sale of bump stocks and other devices that allow semi-automatic firearms to increase their rate of fire and effectively operate as fully automatic weapons.

The bipartisan BUMP Act is led by U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and backed numerous gun safety organizations, including Everytown for Gun Safety, GIFFORDS, Brady, March for Our Lives, and Newtown Action Alliance.

The BUMP Act would ban the sale of deadly bump stock devices that allow semiautomatic fire weapons to rapidly fire multiple rounds like machine guns.  Specifically, it will amend the federal criminal code to prohibit the import, sale, manufacture, transfer, receipt, or possession of:

  • a device that is primarily designed, or redesigned, to increase the rate of fire when attached to a semiautomatic firearm;
  • a device, part, or combination of parts that is designed and functions to increase the rate of fire of a firearm; or
  • a semiautomatic firearm that has been modified to increase the rate of fire.

Additionally, the bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to add modified semiautomatic firearms to the list of firearms subject to regulation under the National Firearms Act.