Top Senate Republicans said Wednesday they are open to considering legislation banning devices that were reportedly used to gun down scores of people in the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

Bump stocks — also known as “slide fire” devices, which work by rapidly “bumping” the trigger of a semi-automatic weapon to boost the rate of fire — were reportedly used by Stephen Paddock to kill 58 people and wound more than 500 in Sunday’s Las Vegas massacre.


No Republican has yet joined Democrats in endorsing a bill targeting bump stocks, but their comments suggest a potential shift in the party’s typically hard-line opposition to gun control measures.

Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Senate Republican, has dispatched his staff to research the use of bump stocks and said it would be “worthwhile” to have a hearing on the topic.

“It is ordinarily illegal to transform a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon, and it’s illegal to buy an automatic weapon unless you have a special license and undergo a special background check,” Cornyn, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview. “I’m not sure how these bump stocks fit into that scheme, but that’s certainly something that’s got my attention and I think we ought to get to the bottom of it.”

John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Senate Republican, said he had talked to other GOP lawmakers about the narrow topic of bump stocks and said several were at least interested in finding out more about how the devices are used.

“I think it’s something we ought to look into,” Thune said. “I don’t know a lot about them, and I’m somebody who, I’d like to think, is fairly familiar with a lot of firearms and you know, the use of those. And that incident out there is something that I think we need to take a look at.”

Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he’d support a bill barring bump stocks from purchase.

“Automatic weapons are illegal. If that facilitates that, to me it would be subject to the same ban,” Johnson said. “If that actually gets on the Senate floor, I’d vote for it.”

Use of the accessories has become more widespread since the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in 2010 that it would not object to their sale.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and more than two dozen other Democrats unveiled a bill Wednesday to prohibit the sale of bump-stock devices.

“Bump stocks — which cost less than $200 — increase a semi-automatic rifle’s rate of fire from between 45 to 60 rounds per minute to between 400 to 800 rounds per minute. That’s the same rate of fire as automatic weapons,” Feinstein, a longtime gun-control advocate, told reporters. “The only reason to modify a gun is to kill as many people as possible in as short as time as possible.”

The sale of automatic weapons has long been tightly regulated, including by a 1986 law that banned individuals from owning or transferring such weapons. Kits to convert semi-automatic to automatic weapons are also banned.

A host of rank-and-file GOP senators expressed interest Wednesday in learning more about bump stocks.

“We’re looking at that too. I wasn’t familiar with them until this came up. So we’re looking at that and studying the issue,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). “It’s a terrible tragedy, and we should look at it.”

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said he’s not a gun expert, so he’s been quizzing a close friend familiar with technical specifications of bump stocks to better understand the issue. Flake said a ban should not be dismissed summarily out of hand, though he worried that Democrats would rush to push legislation before Republicans familiarized themselves with the matter.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) didn’t dismiss the proposal but said he needed to “think through” how rapidly a narrow piece of gun legislation could spiral into a broader debate about concealed carry, background checks and other measures that would be unlikely to get the 60 votes needed to advance in the Senate.

“If you were to ask me about that or any other thing dealing with the Second Amendment, I think you’ve got to think of the process more than you think of any given issue,” Grassley said in an interview. “If you get a gun bill on the floor, you’re going to have all the amendments on the left and all the amendments on the right.”

Other Republicans, including Sens. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and David Perdue of Georgia, also left the door open to action on bump stocks.

“You can’t buy a chain-fed machine gun in the United States today. There’s a reason for that,” Perdue said. “I’d want to make sure that nobody had access to that, if that’s the law of the land.”

But other conservative Republicans insisted they will resist any measure to restrict gun use, including limits on the rapid-fire devices.

“I’m a Second Amendment man,” said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama. “I’m not for any gun control, OK? None.”

“I don’t think we ought to punish 80, 90 million gun owners who have a right to own a weapon under the Constitution because of the act of one idiot,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). “Just like I don’t think we ought to condemn all Muslims because of the act of one jihadist.”

Even Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, the Republican namesake for legislation four years ago that sought to expand background checks, was unpersuaded that lawmakers should pass a bill barring bump stocks. However, he said in a statement later Wednesday that he is open to hearings on the issue.

View Sens. Feinstein and Blumenthal on gun control measures Sens. Feinstein and Blumenthal discuss gun control measures to stop conversions of semi-automatic weapons to weapons that fire at even faster rates.

“You know, I am very skeptical about legislation that attempts to ban features and particular guns,” Toomey said. “So I haven’t looked at it, but I’m skeptical.”

Democrats worried that if there wasn’t quick action, pro-gun rights groups would pressure Republicans to withhold their support.

“My only pessimism comes in our failure to address the terror watch list in the wake of Orlando,” said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, referring to the mass shooting last year at a nightclub in Florida in which 49 people were killed. “That seemed like a no-brainer. And ultimately, we couldn’t get there, but you’ve got to walk before you can run, and if we could find some small agreement on bump stocks, that’s meaningful progress.”

Elana Schor contributed to this report.



Clarification: This story was updated to clarify Flake's remarks.