Chief executive Wayne LaPierre calls for ‘bright line’ to regulate bump stocks after Las Vegas shooting but says nobody should ‘face evil with empty hands’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The National Rifle Association chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, said on Sunday bump stocks, novelty devices that may have been used in the Las Vegas shooting, “fuzz the line” between semi-automatic and fully automatic weapons.

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Federal regulators need to draw a “bright line” when regulating such devices, LaPierre said on CBS’s Face the Nation, in an unusually defensive interview in which he blamed Hollywood, criminal justice reform and the mental health system for the increasing carnage of America’s gun violence epidemic.

Gun control advocates in Congress continued to push for broader gun restrictions, saying that even if tougher laws might not have stopped the Las Vegas shooting, they would have an impact on the more than 80 Americans killed in gun suicides and homicides every single day.

Fifty-eight people were killed and nearly 500 injured when gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on a country music festival from a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.

In a speech on Saturday in Las Vegas, Vice-President Mike Pence called the shooting an act of “unspeakable evil” and celebrated the heroism of Americans who tried to save each other. He made no reference to any laws or policies that might have prevented the attack or lessened its toll. Donald Trump previously called the attack “an act of pure evil”.

You have to go beyond simply clarifying Americans shouldn’t have automatic weapons Senator Chris Murphy

Congressional gun control advocates praised the NRA’s “step forward” in supporting more regulation for bump stocks, which make semi-automatic rifles mimic the rapid fire of fully automatic weapons. But simply banning or more tightly restricting bump stocks would not be a sufficient response to the deadliest mass shooting in recent American history, Democrats said.

“You have to go beyond simply clarifying Americans shouldn’t have automatic weapons in this country,” said Chris Murphy, a Connecticut senator who represents the town where 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012.

The Las Vegas gunman had 12 rifles fitted with bump stocks in his hotel suite, law enforcement officials said. It is not yet clear exactly how he used them.

Murphy said Congress also needed to act to save the Americans who are killed every day with guns, not just focus on the victims of rare and horrific mass shootings. Though closing loopholes in the background check law would not have stopped Paddock, who had no serious criminal record and reportedly passed a background check, he said, it might save the lives of some suicide and homicide victims.

The California senator Dianne Feinstein, a longtime gun control advocate, said no law would have prevented Paddock from carrying out his attack.

“He wasn’t a criminal, he wasn’t a juvenile, he wasn’t gangbanger and he was able to buy 40 weapons over a period of time,” Feinstein told CBS. “He passed background checks registering for handguns and other weapons on multiple occasions.”

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But speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Murphy questioned whether the wide legal availability of military-style guns and accessories might have fueled the Las Vegas shooter’s vision of carrying out a public attack.

“Maybe he would never have walked into that hotel if he had only a pistol, if he didn’t have all these tactical semi-automatic weapons,” he said.

Frances Townsend, a former homeland security adviser to President George W Bush, said on Face the Nation legislators should also focus on the legality of high-capacity ammunition magazines, which allow shooters to fire dozens of rounds without pausing to reload. These magazines, once banned under federal law, may have been used by Paddock in conjunction with bump stocks to achieve a very rapid rate of fire.

Murphy, one of Congress’s most dedicated advocates for gun violence prevention, said he would not demand that other gun control measures be included in legislation to ban or regulate bump stocks.

“I think you have to walk before you run,” he said. “This is the first time the gun lobby has shown willingness to come to the table.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A salesman shows a bump stock installed on an AR-15 rifle at Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, Virginia. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Feinstein, who introduced legislation to ban bump stocks, said she had Republican “interest” but not yet any Republican sponsors. She said she “appreciated” the NRA’s “step forward” in supporting any kind of increased regulation.

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LaPierre was less gracious, saying he was concerned about Feinstein’s “anti-gun circus” once again trying to push forward a wide range of regulations.

The NRA said on Thursday it supported examining whether bump stocks should be more tightly regulated, though the group’s chief lobbyist said it had not called for an outright ban and asked instead for a focus on how federal regulators have interpreted current law.

“Regulations aren’t going to do it,” Feinstein told Face the Nation. “We need a law.” Without new legislation, she said, a ban on bump stocks could be “changed by another president”, as Trump is currently rolling back many Obama regulations.

NRA executives expressed grief at a shooting in which members of the group were among the victims. But LaPierre argued on Sunday that the answer to mass shootings like the one in Las Vegas lay in expanding Americans’ access to guns, including federal legislation that would overrule some local restrictions on gun carrying and allow licensed gun owners to carry their weapons nationwide.

“There are monsters like this monster out there every day,” he said. “Nobody should be forced to face evil with empty hands.”

Asked how it would have helped Las Vegas victims to be carrying guns while they were under attack by a gunman firing down on them from a room on the 32nd floor of a nearby hotel, La Pierre had no clear answer.

Instead, he pointed to the importance of “good guys with guns” at the hotel locating and eventually stopping the shooter. Paddock shot himself dead before police could reach him.