After the slaughter in Las Vegas, Republican leaders in Washington tried to stifle the public’s demands for action with the same technique they’ve deployed after mass shootings in the past: offering up pious exhortations not to “politicize” a tragedy by debating gun controls that might, you know, prevent such mass killings from happening again.

“We are not going to talk about that today,” President Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

“I think it’s premature to be discussing legislative solutions if there are any,” the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said.

How long must Americans wait until Congress addresses real gun laws?

Since the shooting at Las Vegas 58 killed and more than 450 injured

This time, lawmakers had to give some ground. Could it be that Republican leaders felt that enough time had gone by since the previous deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, in 2016 — when a madman gunned down 49 people in a nightclub in Orlando, Fla. — that the time was ripe to discuss gun control? Or that enough time had gone by since 20 children were shot dead in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in 2012?

More likely, they realized that even if they didn’t want to talk about action, the American public did.

And one element of Sunday’s mayhem was so senselessly absurd that it has stirred even Republican legislators and their masters in the gun lobby. Weapons experts were stunned by the intensity of the murderous gunfire in Las Vegas. On recordings, they could hear rounds pouring into the crowd in sustained bursts, not in rapid, individually aimed shots. The killer had taken a semiautomatic weapon and attached a device called a bump stock to accelerate its rate of fire to that rivaling machine guns, most of which are illegal.

“I don’t know anybody who goes deer hunting that needs to retrofit a gun to fire hundreds of rounds per minute,” Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, said. “It’s to slaughter people.”

Republican leaders have regularly responded — or, really, not responded — to past killings by blocking sensible, useful gun control. But bump stocks are too insane even for them. They’ve said they would introduce legislation to ban them — a timely move as sales have reportedly increased.

On Thursday, the National Rifle Association broke its usual post-massacre silence by saying bump stocks “should be subject to additional regulations.” In the same statement, though, it called on Congress to require states to recognize concealed-carry permits issued by other states, spreading a Wild West mentality from coast to coast.

That this would count as progress shows how far we still need to go. Republicans in Congress shouldn’t think that sacrificing bump stocks will even begin to suffice, given the depth of public fear about the dangers posed by deadly weapons that are so freely available.

And they should not be allowed to delay effective legislation any longer. Too many days have passed, from one tragedy to the next. This is the time.

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Thousands gathered for the vigil at Lake Eola for Pulse Nightclub. Hilary Swift for The New York Times

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Hundreds hold up lit candles in honour of University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) police officer Garrett Swasey, who was killed in the shooting. Associated Press

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Parishioners embrace as they attend the first church service four days after the shooting. David Goldman-Pool/Getty Images

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A Marysville Pilchuck High School student is comforted at a church. Ted S. Warren/Associated Press

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University of Santa Barbara students gather on campus for a candlelight vigil. Spencer Weiner/Getty Images

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