President Trump calls for bump stock ban

As calls for stricter gun control grow louder in the wake of the Florida Shooting, some lawmakers, including President Trump, are calling for a ban on bump stocks.

The device came to prominence in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting. It modifies a semi-automatic weapon to simulate automatic fire.

The city of Denver banned the device completely in January.

“I signed a memo directing the attorney general to propose regulations that ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns,” President Donald Trump said.

“This is a knee-jerk reaction. It is not going to help any problems, but it’s going to create problems for people that are generally law-abiding citizens,” Paul Paradis, owner of Paradise Sales, a gun store in Colorado Springs.

Senator Michael Merrifield, who’s sponsoring a bill for a Colorado ban on bump stocks said it comes down to safety.

“It’s an instrument of mass death as fast as possible,” Merrifield said. “There’s no reason to own that.”

But is it legal under the second amendment to take away a device a gun owner purchased legally?

California passed a law limiting how big of a magazine someone could own. Before the law took effect, a judge blocked it saying it takes away gun owner’s rights.

“This is not about trying to stop a certain type of crime,” Paradis said. “This is about whittling away gun rights.”