WASHINGTON – Five years ago, a retired postal worker on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel carried out the deadliest mass shooting in American history, reopening a debate over a device known as a bump stock that turns a semi-automatic rifle into something closer to a machine gun.
Within a few months then-President Donald Trump moved to ban bump stocks through regulation, asserting the policy would “make it easier for men and women of law enforcement to protect our children and to protect our safety.”