U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the Justice Department is preparing to announce new regulations that will ban bump stocks.
While speaking to the National Association of Attorneys General, Sessions asserted that despite previous legal opinions the DOJ believes it can use its lawyers to ban the firearms accessory.
“We will have an announcement on that soon,” Sessions said when asked about his department’s progress. “We believe in that, and we have had to deal with previous ATF legal opinions, but our top people in the Department of Justice have believed for some time that we can through regulatory process not allow the bump stock to convert a weapon from a semiautomatic to a fully automatic.”
The ATF in 2010 stated it did into have the authority to regulate bump stocks under the Gun Control Act and the National Firearms Act. The bureau likewise told Congress in a 2012 letter that it “does not have the authority to restrict their lawful possession, use, or transfer.”