WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) released a statement following President Trump’s announcement that his administration will officially ban bump stock devices, which allow semi-automatic weapons to be modified to fire at the rate of automatic weapons.

“I'm happy the Trump administration is finally doing this, but nobody should get a pat on the back for doing away with these mass killing devices. This should have been done a long time ago. Bump stocks have enabled murderers to kill hundreds of innocent Americans – and they were used exactly as directed. How many more lives do we have to lose before Congress decides it’s not okay?” said Murphy. “Frankly, there is significant risk in doing this administratively. Gun companies will likely sue, and if Republicans actually cared about banning bump stocks, they would pass legislation making it crystal clear that the government has the authority to ban these devices.”

Since his time in the Senate, Murphy has been a vocal critic of our nation’s gun laws, and authored the Background Check Expansion Act to expand federal background checks to the sale or transfer of all firearms by private sellers, with certain reasonable exceptions. Murphy also co-authored the bipartisan Fix NICS Act with U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), which would ensure federal and state authorities accurately report relevant criminal history records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Murphy also joined U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to introduce the Automatic Gun Fire Prevention Act, a bill to close a loophole that allows people to use bump-stocks to turn semi-automatic weapons to automatic weapons.

###