By Allan Lengel
You might recall in October 2017, Stephen Paddock killed nearly 60 people and wounded hundreds of others during a country music festival in Las Vegas.
Paddock, who later killed himself in a hotel room, had 22 semi-automatic rifles and 14 of them were equipped with bump stocks, which essentially allow guns to fire at a rapid pace like a machine gun.
In 2018, the Trump administration passed a rule banning bump stocks.
But sales recently resumed in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, much to the delight of some gun rights advocates, the Dallas Morning News reports.
In January, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the ban by ATF, allowing shops in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, within the 5th Circuit’s jurisdiction, sell them again, the publication reports. They’re still illegal elsewhere in the country.
Federal law bans possession of machine guns manufactured after 1986. A federal license is required to own one before that year.
