HollyMatkinWashington, DC – President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he has directed his administration draft regulations that would ban bump stocks and other devices that increase the firing rate of semiautomatic weapons.
“Just a few moments ago, I signed a memorandum directing the Attorney General to propose regulations to ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns,” President Trump confirmed at the start of the Public Safety Medal of Valor Awards Ceremony in the White House East Room, according to CBS News.
The president said that he expects the regulations to be finalized “very soon.”
“Although I desire swift and decisive action, I remain committed to the rule of law and to the procedures the law prescribes,” the president wrote in his memorandum to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “Doing this the right way will ensure that the resulting regulation is workable and effected and leaves no loopholes for criminals to exploit.
President Trump said that the effort began in December of 2017, after Stephen Paddock used bump stocks to increase the firing rate of his weapon as he gunned down 58 concertgoers and injured over 800 others in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017.
The proposed legal regulations would not have prevented the recent school massacre in Parkland, Florida, during which 17 people were killed, NBC News reported.
President Trump also noted that he would entertain the idea of universal background checks, and that his administration would be making school security a top priority, CBS News reported.
“We cannot merely take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference,” President Trump said. “We must actually make a difference.”
He later tweeted support for expanded background checks.
When asked about the president’s views regarding an “assault weapon ban,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that “we haven’t closed the door on any front,” CBS News reported.