LAS VEGAS (AP) — Some officials in Nevada are welcoming President Donald Trump’s call for a ban on devices that authorities say helped a gunman in Las Vegas kill 58 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Gov. Brian Sandoval and state Attorney General Adam Laxalt, both Republicans, endorsed Trump’s directive Tuesday that the Justice Department come up with a rule to ban devices like the rapid-fire bump stocks used in last October’s massacre.
But Democratic U.S. Rep. Dina Titus downplayed Trump’s action as “more about shaping a narrative than saving lives.” Titus noted that bills to ban or regulate the rapid-fire weapon modification devices, called bump stocks, have not passed in Congress.
The sheriff in Las Vegas, Joe Lombardo, said Wednesday that he supports “any solution that would prevent the possibility of another life being taken in a mass shooting.”
Most Read Nation & World Stories
“We owe it to the public to have an honest conversation about this issue,” Lombardo said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Sandoval said federal action “is the appropriate approach for sanctions on bump stocks or similar accessories, as it would be the most direct path for a swift and uniform change.”
Republican U.S. Sen. Dean Heller said he’s pleased by Trump’s directive, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen called Trump’s call “long overdue.”