Christie, Lawmakers May Agree On Gun Legislation After Las Vegas Massacre

Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic lawmakers may have found some common ground, and it's not on an issue you'd expect. But both sides are looking for some way to address gun use in the wake of the Las Vegas massacre that left that left 59 concertgoers dead and 489 injured.

Democratic Sens. Raymond Lesniak and Richard Codey and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg have introduced legislation in the Senate to ban the sale and possession of “bump stocks,” a gun accessory reportedly used by the Las Vegas gunman to dramatically increase the rate of fire. The tool effectively converted his guns into fully automatic weapons.

“This was an open-air massacre that turned a music concert into a killing ground,” said Senator Lesniak, a prime sponsor of the bill. “His firepower was dramatically increased by using these bump stocks to effectively convert his weapons into fully-automatic rifles. The sale and possession of these devices need to be outlawed.”

Christie spokesman Brian Murray released a statement saying the governor is willing to work with Democrats on bump stocks, saying he "looks forward to working with the legislature on this issue when they return to work after the election."

The statement was a shift in tone from earlier in the week when Christie said "a whole bunch of new gun laws" won't stop mass shootings. Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno, a Republican running for governor, also said now is "not the time" to address the issue as the country mourns the Las Vegas tragedy.

While bump stocks are legal to sell, buy, and own in New Jersey, they are not legal to possess in the state if they are utilized on a firearm or in the vicinity of a firearm "on which it could be placed," Jeffrey Flynn, a spokesman with the State Police, told nj.com.

Under the proposed legislation, breaking the law would be a third-degree offense punishable by three to five years in prison. Individuals already in possession would have a 90-day grace period to turn them in to police and retailers would have 30 days.

Bump stocks fit in place of the stock of a rifle, allowing a shooter to use the recoil of the gun to activate the trigger more rapidly, the Democratic lawmakers said. This simple modification allowed the killer, Stepehn Paddock, to fire at a rate of 400 to 800 rounds a minute. Bump stocks, developed and marketed in recent years, sell for as little as $99.

“The videotapes of the shooting are chilling,” said Codey, who will be the prime co-sponsor of the legislation. “The non-stop barrage of bullets into the large crowd from the vantage point of the hotel left the victims defenseless. It was a brutal and senseless attack that was made all the more lethal by the weapons he used.”

Paddock had an arsenal of weapons with him in the hotel, including an estimated 12 bump stocks and thousands of rounds of ammunition, the lawmakers said. He wounded a security guard before taking his own life as the police quickly descended on his “sniper’s nest” on the 32nd floor of the hotel, according to the lawmakers.

“There is no legitimate use for these devices other than to increase the killing power of the weapons they are designed for,” said Weinberg, a co-sponsor of the measure. “No single law can prevent all the gun violence but we need to use the tragic lessons of these cases to make our communities safer. Keeping these bump stocks out of circulation is an obvious lesson from the Las Vegas tragedy.”

(Lead image via Allen Breed/Associated Press)