WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has ordered his Justice Department to work toward banning rapid-fire bump stocks like the ones used in last year’s Las Vegas massacre- but officials aren’t sure they can.
Trump’s surprise order this week comes as officials from the department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are well into a review of whether they can regulate the devices without action from Congress.
The path to a ban is neither simple nor quick. An ATF ban on the accessories, which allow semi-automatic rifles to mimic machine guns, would likely thrust the department into a prolonged legal battle with gun manufacturers while the devices remain on the market. But any congressional effort to create new gun control laws would need support from the pro-gun Republican majority. And Republicans have moved in the other direction, attempting to loosen gun laws, even after 59 people were killed in Las Vegas.
Despite the president stepping up pressure on the department in the aftermath of the Florida high school shooting, some ATF officials maintain that only Congress can render such devices illegal, and, in any event, amending existing gun laws or passing new legislation would be a faster approach.
Acting ATF director Thomas Brandon has sent mixed signals on what the agency can do. He told lawmakers in December that the ATF and Justice Department would not have initiated the review if a ban “wasn’t a possibility at the end,” but he has also expressed doubt that it would be able to do so without congressional intervention.