When Stephen Paddock killed 58 people at a Las Vegas music festival earlier this month, he used a device called a bump stock, essentially turning his semiautomatic rifles into fully automatic ones — exponentially increasing their rate of fire, and in turn, the death toll of the attack. Before the shooting, most Americans didn’t even know what a bump stock was. A few days afterwards, the term had become common knowledge. Now, we’re calling to ban them.
On Wednesday, 10 days after the shooting, the Massachusetts House legislators overwhelmingly approved an amendment banning any device that would increase the rate of discharge of a firearm. The amendment saw 151 votes in favor and only three votes opposed, all from Republican legislators. On Thursday, the amendment and the budget bill as a whole will head to the Senate for consideration.
The amendment’s critics have been few and far between. However, some still found fault with the legislature for moving so quickly and for acting on the matter without a public hearing. Sure, the House could have slowed down and waited a little on this amendment. But whether or not legislators take their time, gun violence won’t.
It is perfectly plausible that Massachusetts might have seen a mass shooting in the 10 days it took to get the amendment this far. It’s possible that one could still happen before the bill is signed into law. Without restrictions on bump stocks, there is absolutely nothing stopping someone in Massachusetts from legally obtaining these accessories to inflict the same kind of damage here that we are still grieving from in Las Vegas.
Bump stocks are not a Second Amendment right. They are killing machines, and they are absolutely unnecessary. Civilians have no place owning them.
In 2010, bump stocks were legalized by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under the Obama administration. Up until the shooting in Las Vegas, a quick YouTube video could show you how to attach one to your gun. These small pieces of metal or plastic were written off as if they were toys rather than the accessories of mass destruction that they are, at least up until a few weeks ago.
It shouldn’t be as easy as a Google search and a little bit of cash to turn your legal firearms into weapons of war. Hopefully, Massachusetts law will make this process illegal.
This idea is such common sense that even the National Rifle Association is tentatively on board for some additional regulations on bump stocks. Even though it’s unlikely anything will come from that, it’s not everyday that the NRA makes a concession, no matter how miniscule. That says something.
Unfortunately, it is all too evident that we can’t expect anything from the Trump administration in terms of gun control. But that’s OK. It’s ridiculous and horrible and sad, but it’s OK. Because although we can’t count on the Trump administration to do anything important, we have learned something since January. The Trump administration has shown us the importance of state and local governments. When the people in the White House and on Capitol Hill refuse to act, the states still will. That’s exactly what they’re here for.
Massachusetts is only one liberal state, and a small one at that, but it’s a start. It’s one more place where it will be clear that we won’t let guns turned into automatic rifles without batting an eye. With any luck, a few more states will follow suit, and eventually, the federal government too. That’s how change happens — state by state, little by little — until we have laws in place that could potentially stop massacres from taking place regularly.
But we know banning bump stocks won’t stop mass shootings. It might not even stop people from turning their guns into automatic rifles. It will make accessing this equipment a little bit harder. There is some extent to which criminals won’t go to obtain these kinds of tools — there is some amount of effort that prevents these transactions from happening. Even if this law only stops one single shooter from buying a bump stock, it very well might save dozens of lives.
When something so massive and so horrible like this happens, it’s our nature to do what we can to help, no matter how small that thing may be. We might donate blood or post on social media, or in the case of Massachusetts, pass an amendment. Individually, these things might not do much, but in aggregate, the progress is very tangible.
If the shooter in Las Vegas didn’t have a bump stock that night, who knows how many lives might have been saved. Now we have the opportunity to make sure it doesn’t happen again, or at least to try. It is both immoral and irresponsible not to do so.
There are so many other gun control reforms that we desperately need in Massachusetts, not to mention America as a whole. Banning bump stocks would be the bare minimum step in keeping people safe. But it’s a step nonetheless, and one that we just might have enough momentum to take right now, despite who’s sitting in the Oval Office.
