White House counselor Kellyanne Conway blamed the Obama administration Thursday for not regulating “bump stocks,” which were used in the Las Vegas massacre.
A bump stock is a device that enables semi-automatic rifles to fire rapidly like automatic weapons. Jill Snyder, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), said Tuesday that the gunman in Las Vegas rigged 12 semi-automatic rifles with bump stocks.
“I did note … it was President Obama’s ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, in 2010 that decided not to regulate this device,” she told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.” “That should be part of the conversation and part of the facts that you put before your viewers.”
In 2010, Texas-based Slide Fire pitched the device to federal regulators as a new way to assist people with disabilities to “bump fire” from an AR-15-type rifle. Breitbart News, led by former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, noted Wednesday that the device was approved by Obama’s ATF.
Conway also argued that Democrats such as Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren don’t talk about gun control until a tragedy occurs.
“(Clinton) has tweeted about guns one time this year. Bernie Sanders, zero times. Elizabeth Warren, zero times. They have tweeted about Russia over 30 times, Sanders and Warren,” she said. All three Democrats tweeted frequently about guns in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting.
Cuomo responded: “I’m tired, so I apologize in advance, but I have to tell you a lot of this doesn’t wash … don’t cheapen what happened in Las Vegas.”
Though Washington lawmakers have been facing questions about possible gun control measures in the wake of the massacre, President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday that he would not address the issue while traveling in Las Vegas.
“We’re not going to talk about that today,” Trump told a reporter at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada trauma center. “We won’t talk about that.”