WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Congresswoman Dina Titus (NV-01) led a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, joined by 62 of her colleagues, urging him to bring bipartisan legislation to the floor that would make bump stocks illegal.

“To date, the Republican Majority in the House has failed to bring up a single bill to prevent gun violence and address the epidemic in the U.S.,” said Rep. Dina Titus, member of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. “Unfortunately, this inaction has real consequences. With the Supreme Court reviewing a case that could make bump stocks legal once more after a 2018 ban, the stakes have never been higher. That is why I led 62 of my colleagues calling on Speaker Johnson to bring my bipartisan bill to the floor for a vote that would make bump stocks illegal. The Route 91 massacre in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017, where bump stocks were used, remains the deadliest mass shooting in modern history and I will not stop fighting until they are banned.”

Background
Bump stocks affix to assault rifles and generate automatic fire with a single trigger pull, allowing a shooter to fire at a rate of 400 to 800 rounds per minute. These devices were used to carry out the Route 91 Festival shooting in Las Vegas, NV, on October 1, 2017. This shooting in Rep. Titus’s district remains the deadliest mass shooting in our nation’s history with the death of 58 individuals.

On February 28, 2024, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Garland v. Cargill, a challenge to a 2018 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) rulemaking that deemed bump stocks illegal for civilian use. If the Supreme Court Justices side with the challenge to the ATF rule, these dangerous supplemental devices would return to our communities.

Given these high stakes, Rep. Titus’s letter, signed by 62 additional members of Congress, urges Speaker Johnson to bring her bipartisan Closing the Bump Stock Loophole Act of 2023 to the floor for a vote to ban bump stocks. This would maintain the status quo and is necessary to ensure a ban on these devices is codified into federal law.

The Closing the Bump Stock Loophole Act would legislatively ban bump stocks and limit the industry’s ability to use supplemental devices to loophole their way around existing gun laws. It currently has 133 co-sponsors.

This bill would treat bump stocks the same way as machine guns under the National Firearms Act, making it generally illegal to manufacture, sell, or possess bump stocks for civilian use. The industry would be unable to design around this law because it covers not only bump stock devices but also other parts and modifications that similarly increase the rate of fire by eliminating the need for each single function of the trigger. 

The full letter to Speaker Johnson can be found HERE.

The Closing the Bump Stock Loophole Act can be found HERE. It is supported by Giffords: Courage to Fight Gun Violence, Everytown for Gun Safety, Brady: United Against Gun Violence, and the Newtown Action Alliance.