A firearms accessory used by the gunman in last year’s deadly Las Vegas shooting was officially banned Tuesday by the Trump Administration.
The device is known as the bump stock, which allows off the shelf semiautomatic rifles to fire as rapidly as a machine gun.
“I’d say the cheapest firearm that you can buy that is a machine gun is going to be upwards of $10,000, so that’s really out of the grasp of a lot of people,” said Carlo Galinato, of Freedom Shooting Center in Virginia Beach.
A bump stock costs closer to $200. Galinato said his store never had any reason to carry the product.
“To be honest no one was asking for it,” said Galinato. “Bump stocks never had the traction it needed to go mainstream, so it really became a little boutique item.”
Then in October 2017, the deadliest shooting in U.S. history took place in Las Vegas. Stephen Paddock used a bump stock to fire more than 1,100 rounds of ammunition in 10 minutes, killing 58 people and injuring more than 800 others. The bump-stock was immediately on everyone’s radar.
“In recent times in the last 10 years there hasn’t been anything like this accessory wise, this is something new, there is really nothing comparable to it,” said Galinato.
The Justice Department estimates there were more than a half-a-million of them sold nationwide since 2010. Those owners have been given 90 days to give them up to the government or destroy them.
Galinato said that’s going to be tough to enforce.
“It’s not a serialized item, so how do we even know people own bump stocks,” said Galinato.
Galinato also said he doesn’t see this ban having any serious effect on his industry.
“Only the manufacturers of the bump stock are going to really feel the effect,” said Galinato.
► Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13News Now App.