While automatic weapons are tightly regulated in the US, the use of bump-fire stocks in semi-automatic weapons is legal. But some believe bump-fire stocks, while legal, violate the spirit of gun restrictions. Automatic weapons are illegal, but devices like bump stocks that modify a gun to fire at fully-automatic rates ARE legal. Several senators said Wednesday they were unfamiliar with what bump stocks are and needed to look into them before weighing in on the legislation. The purchase of fully automatic weapons has been restricted in the US since the 1930s.

Source: CNN October 04, 2017 16:21 UTC