Senator Mark Kelly speaks at press conference with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland on Infrastructure Act funds in Phoenix on February 22, 2022.
Last week, the Supreme Court overturned a ban on bump stocks, accessories that allow guns to fire more rapidly, near the rate of machine guns. The court’s conservative-led decision claims the Trump administration overstepped its authority by banning the devices after they were used in a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Now, the decision has inspired rare across-the-aisle cooperation on gun restrictions in Congress.
Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly said he supports new legislation to re-ban the devices and is lining up bipartisan support for it in response to the court’s recent decision.
“These things take work,” said Kelly. “You know, we’ve got a gun lobby, puts a lot of resources behind defeating legislation like this.”
The court’s decision, Kelly said, is flawed.
“Bump stocks have no use with the exception of what you saw in Las Vegas at the shooting at the country music festival where over 800 people were injured in a matter of just minutes,” said Kelly.
As far as the new legislation, he said that already-existing restrictions on fully automatic weapons provide the bill plenty of legal cover.
EDITOR'S NOTE: A previous version of this story inaccurately reported that Sen. Mark Kelly plans to introduce new legislation banning bump-stocks. Kelly said on June 18, after Senate Republicans blocked a bump-stock ban, that he supports this bill, and is attempting to line up bipartisan support for the legislation, but is not a sponsor of the bill, or introducing similar legislation.
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