Bump stock critiques draw mixed reaction among those who are pro-gun

(WJBK) - Twelve bump stocks were found in the hotel room of the Las Vegas shooter. Bump stocks are attachments that modify and enable semiautomatic rifles to fire faster. Hundreds of people were injured and 58 were killed when Stephen Paddock got behind the trigger during the concert. 

In the days after the mass shooting, the National Rifle Association said these devices should be "subject to additional regulations." What seemingly was finally a common ground in the gun control debate has drawn mixed reaction among those who are pro-gun.

"I don't see any civilian application for them whatsoever," says gun shop and range owner Bill Kucyk. He's never sold them, and says the NRA is right on target calling for more restrictions.

"I have not talked with anybody who believes that these should be allowed, and that's all day here in the store and yesterday. I don't know of anybody who really wants them," he says.

But NRA life member and firearm instructor Rick Ector would beg to differ.

"The gun, the accessory, the bump stock, did not commit this crime," he says. "Once we start enacting legislation on bump stocks who knows what other devices that they're going to take off the market because they do not believe law-abiding citizens can behave responsibly with those."

The NRA is calling on the ATF to immediately review if bump stocks, like the ones Stephen Paddock, used comply with federal law, saying the devices should be subject to additional regulations.

"Based on how many people were killed, it's a no-brainer," says Lindsay Warren of the Oakland and Macomb Chapter of Moms Demand Action. The anti gun violence group formed one day after the Sandy Hook mass shooting.

She says the NRA is taking a step in the right direction but has not gone far enough; it should push to expand gun free zones -- the exact opposite of its state legislative agenda.

We need to keep them out of schools, churches, concert halls; all the places where we're seeing these events happen," she says.

The bump stocks allows semi-automatic rifles, which only fire as fast as you can pull the trigger, to function like fully automatic rifles.

Since the Vegas massacre, Slide Fire, the company that claims to produce the official bump stock, announced it's stopped taking new orders so it can provide the best service with those already placed.

Even so, the stocks are readily available on other websites.

It is possible demand for bump stocks will go up as they could become restricted or even banned. If bump stocks do get banned, other devices also allow for the modification of triggers on rifles, and some can't help but wonder if those would be banned or regulated, too.