Columbia S.C. set to ban bump stocks

The mayor of Columbia, S.C., says the city council is expected to pass an order Tuesday night that will prohibit the use of bump stocks, Reuters reports.

“One of the common refrains that you hear whether it was in Texas or Vegas or Sandy Hook is that a good guy with a gun could have stopped the carnage,” Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin (D) told the newswire in an interview on Monday.

“It’s time for the good guys with guns to begin to pass some really good policy,” he continued.

Four of six city council members reportedly signed off on the plan after reading through the proposed measure earlier this month.

Benjamin told the newswire that local police and council members who support the Second Amendment also stand behind the measure. 

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The use of bump stocks gained national attention after authorities said they found a number of the devices in the hotel room of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock. 

Paddock sent a barrage of bullets into a crowd attending a country music concert, killing at least 58 people and wounding hundreds more in what has become the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

After the shooting, Democrats, as well as some Republicans, said they would support measures to ban the rapid fire devices. The Justice Department also said it was mulling over a decision to ban bump stocks as well. 

Two states — California and New York — prohibit them already, according to the report, which cited the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Massachusetts became the first state after the Las Vegas shooting to vote to ban the devices statewide. 

A handful of other states also presently have bans on devices that create automatic fire as well as assault weapons, the organization said. 

“We are not aware of any cities that have passed ordinances banning bump stocks,” Tom Martin, a spokesman for the National League of Cities, told Reuters.

Under the ordinance, gun owners in Columbia would also not be allowed to use other gun attachments that help their weapon fire faster.