Experienced gun hobbyists recognized the sound right away.
“I knew for a fact it was a bump stock as soon as I heard the video,” says Jeff LaCroix. He’s a recreational shooter in Louisiana. He says the rapid, uneven sound of the gunfire at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas last Oct. 1 made it clear to him a bump stock was involved.
A bump stock is a simple device that attaches to semiautomatic rifles, which normally shoot one round per trigger-pull, to speed up the firing rate by harnessing the gun’s recoil to “bump” the trigger faster than the shooter would be able to with his or her finger.
The device allowed the Las Vegas gunman to spray more than a thousand rounds from his perch in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds.
As soon as LaCroix realized bump stocks were implicated, he assumed they’d be banned. He even posted a video of himself giving his daughter Haley a chance to fire one “before it’s too late.”
Almost a year later, he’s still expecting the government to come for his bump stock.
“Did I think after the shooting they were going to take them immediately? Yes. I’m surprised they hadn’t done something earlier,” he says. “Is it going to hurt my feelings if they take it? No. Do I think they should take them? No.”
Bump stocks are now illegal in some places. Ten states have passed bans or restrictions on the devices since the Las Vegas shooting. The Florida Legislature included a ban in its package of new gun regulations following the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, even though a bump stock wasn’t used in that crime. In Vermont, state police have offered to take bump stocks for disposal, ahead of a new ban that takes effect Oct. 1.
But in most of the country, bump stocks are still legal and
