Bump Stock Ban In Washington: Senate Approves Measure

OLYMPIA, WA - Nearly five months after bump stocks were used in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, both chambers of the state Legislature have now passed a ban on the gun accessory. Stephen Paddock used a bump stock with an AR-15 to kill 58 and wound over 800 at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas on Oct. 1.

The state Senate passed the ban on Tuesday 31-18. The bill passed in the House on Friday 56-41.

A bump stock can be attached to the stock of a rifle like an AR-15, turning the semi-automatic weapon into, essentially, a fully automatic weapon. At the federal level, President Donald Trump has said that he wants bump stocks banned nationwide.

Here's a summary of the Washington ban:

Prohibits a person from manufacturing, owning, buying, selling, loaning, furnishing, transporting, or having in possession or under control, a bump-fire stock. Provides the following definition for bump-fire stock: A butt stock designed to be attached to a semiautomatic firearm with the effect of increasing the rate of fire achievable with the semiautomatic firearm to that of a fully automatic firearm by using the energy from the recoil of the firearm to generate reciprocating action that facilitates repeated activation of the trigger.