NRA Calls For Regulations On 'Bump Stocks' Implicated In Las Vegas Shooting

NEW YORK, NY — The National Rifle Association Thursday called for more regulation of "bump stocks," a firearm accessory that essentially turns semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons. Authorities found 12 guns outfitted with gun stocks in the possession of the Las Vegas shooter who killed 58 people and wounded more than 500 others Sunday night.

"The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations," the group said in a statement. It called for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to re-examine the issue, adding that the agency's previous decisions not to subject bump stocks to strict regulation came under the Obama administration.

It's not clear, though, that the Obama administration had any choice in the matter. ATF found at the time that since bump stocks are not firearms, it did not have any jurisdiction to regulate them, according to CNN.

Watch: White House Welcomes Discussion On Bump Stocks

Several years ago, California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein told The Associated Press she was concerned about the emergence of the new devices. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

"This replacement shoulder stock turns a semi-automatic rifle into a weapon that can fire at a rate of 400 to 800 rounds per minute," she said.

CNNMoney reported that bump stock sellers have experienced a rush of demand for the items as calls for their regulation grow louder.

On Thursday, the White House said it was open to considering the bump stock issue, suggesting there might be room for progress on the typically intractable issue of gun control.

It's unclear how many have been sold. Listings for the devices had been seen on websites for Walmart and Cabela's, two of the nation's largest gun retailers. But those listings were no longer on either company's website on Wednesday.

Walmart said in a statement that it pulled the devices after determining they violated a "prohibited items policy" and never should have been offered for sale. Cabela's did not return messages seeking comment.

"We certainly welcome that, would like to be part of that conversation," said Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at a briefing. "And we would like to see a clear understanding of the facts. And we'd like to see input from the victims' families, from law enforcement, from policy makers. And we're expecting hearings and other important fact-finding efforts on that and we want to be part of that discussion."

Bump stocks originally were intended to help people with limited hand mobility fire a semi-automatic without the individual trigger pulls required. They can fit over the rear shoulder-stock assembly on a semi-automatic rifle and with applied pressure cause the weapon to fire continuously.

The government gave its seal of approval to selling the devices in 2010 after concluding that they did not violate federal law.

The endorsement from the NRA and congressional Republicans for a change in law or policy to regulate guns, however narrow, marked a shift. Inaction has been the norm following other mass shootings, including the Sandy Hook, Connecticut, massacre of schoolchildren five years ago, last year's bloodbath at the Pulse nightclub in Florida, and a baseball field shooting this year in which House Majority Whip Steve Scalise came close to death.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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