Story highlights Bump stocks allow semi-automatic weapons to fire at a rapidly increased pace

Legislation related to gun control has had a difficult time advancing in recent years

(CNN) Bipartisan legislation banning gun accessories known as bump fire stocks was formally introduced Tuesday in the House of Representatives, led by one of the most politically endangered House Republicans, Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo.

The rare effort by 20 members of both parties to restrict these devices follows the mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 dead and hundreds more injured.

Guns found in the hotel of Vegas shooter Steven Paddock had been modified with bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire ammunition much more rapidly, similar to the rate of automatic weapons. The accessories are legal and currently the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives does not regulate their manufacture and sale following a legal opinion issued under the Obama administration.

"For the first time in decades, there is growing bipartisan consensus for sensible gun policy, a polarizing issue that has deeply divided Republicans and Democrats," Curbelo said in a written statement accompanying the legislation.

Despite a string of mass shootings in recent years, gun control legislation has failed to make significant progress in Congress. Democrats controlled the Senate in 2013 but failed to get the votes to tighten background check rules after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in 2012 killed 20 children and six adults, and subsequent efforts to revive similar proposals have failed in the GOP-controlled Congress.

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