The time is right now to ban gun bump stocks

Chicago Tribune: We’re relieved congressional Republicans appear ready to consider a limited form of gun control: banning the bump stock, the rapid-firing device used in the Las Vegas massacre.

We’re stunned the National Rifle Association seems to agree. What a significant moment this could be, in the wake of a horrendous criminal act, for the national conversation about gun rights and gun culture.

The sniper who slaughtered more than 50 people and wounded nearly 500 at an outdoor concert possessed numerous weapons, including some retrofitted with bump stocks. This allowed the shooter to fire at a near- continuous rate, as if raking his target area with a machine gun.

Why on earth would any private individual need access to a weapon of war? That’s the question even adamant defenders of the Second Amendment right to gun possession appear willing to ask in the wake of Las Vegas. Our answer is that there is no compelling reason to give civilians the firepower of the infantry.

MACHINE-GUN REGULATIONS

The history of machine-gun regulations dates to Chicago’s gangster era of the 1920s and early ’30s. The bad guys shot each other up with Tommy guns. The National Firearms Act of 1934 clamped down on machine guns by imposing tax and registration restrictions. These days, the sale of automatic weapons to civilians is banned, and the sale of automatic weapons manufactured before 1986 is closely regulated.

Bump stocks and the like should be banned. They serve no justifiable purpose. Republicans, move on this. Don’t expect public pressure to fade. Ban these killing machines. Las Vegas was a moment the country never wanted that it must confront.