Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: it's Christian Seger here. On Sunday, October one, a country
Speaker 1: music festival in Las Vegas became the scene of a
Speaker 1: mass killing when a gunman positioned in a high rise
Speaker 1: hotel began shooting at concert goers. At least fifty eight
Speaker 1: died and more than five hundred others were injured before
Speaker 1: the shooter took his own life. This is according to
Speaker 1: Las Vegas TV station k X and T. During the attack,
Speaker 1: the shooter at one point managed to fire nearly ninety
Speaker 1: rounds in just ten seconds, according to a New York
Speaker 1: Times analysis of audio posted on social media. The speed
Speaker 1: of that bullet barrage led some to assume that the
Speaker 1: killer used a fully automatic firearm, a type of gun
Speaker 1: that automatically reloads after a shot is fired, fires again,
Speaker 1: and then repeats the process as long as the trigger
Speaker 1: remains depressed. With the Firearm Owners Protection Act of six,
Speaker 1: Congress banned the sale of new fully automatic firearms, but
Speaker 1: once produced before that date, are still obtainable after the
Speaker 1: purchaser goes through an FBI background check. But the Las
Speaker 1: Vegas killer didn't need a fully automatic weapon to unleash
Speaker 1: rapid fire terror. In a Wednesday, October four press conference,
Speaker 1: Jill Snyder, special Agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol,
Speaker 1: Tobacco and Firearms from the San Francisco office, said that
Speaker 1: when authorities reached the gunman's hotel room, they found an
Speaker 1: arsenal that included twelve semi automatic rifles equipped with aftermarket
Speaker 1: attachments called bump fire stocks. As Snyder explained, the devices
Speaker 1: are designed to simulate automatic fire without mechanically altering the
Speaker 1: function of a rifle in a way that would make
Speaker 1: it illegal under current federal law. A standard fully automatic
Speaker 1: weapon like a pre n coult A R fifteen, can
Speaker 1: fire a hundred shots in about seven seconds, according to
Speaker 1: the New York Times analysis, while a semi automatic a
Speaker 1: R fifteen style assault rifle of the kind used in
Speaker 1: the June two thousand sixteen Orlando nightclub shooting that can
Speaker 1: fire twenty four shots in nine seconds. The bump stock,
Speaker 1: though the one that was used in Las Vegas, more
Speaker 1: than triples the capability of the ladder. As The Truth
Speaker 1: about Guns, a popular gun blog, explains, a bump fire
Speaker 1: stock basically replaces the rigid standard stock on a rifle,
Speaker 1: Unlike the standard stock, the bump fire stock has a
Speaker 1: small amount of space that allows the rest of the
Speaker 1: rifle to move back and forth. That way, the recoil
Speaker 1: causes the gun to bump the trigger against the shooter's finger,
Speaker 1: increasing the speed of firing. As a discussion thread on
Speaker 1: the gun enthusiast website a R fifteen dot com explains
Speaker 1: it's possible to get a similar effect by holding the
Speaker 1: rifle at waste level. Though they increase the lethal potential
Speaker 1: of a gun and replicate a now illegal to possess firearm,
Speaker 1: the bump stocks themselves do not violate the current law.
Speaker 1: A two thousand ten letter produced by the A t
Speaker 1: F explains that one bump fire device that was evaluated
Speaker 1: was found to be a legal firearm part and therefore
Speaker 1: not regulated under the Act. Senator Diane Feinstein, a Democrat
Speaker 1: from California, has introduced a bill that would ban devices
Speaker 1: designed to allow a semi automatic weapon to simulate full
Speaker 1: auto speed. According to CNBC, even some Republican members of Congress,
Speaker 1: generally reluctant to enact firearm regulation, are now willing to
Speaker 1: consider such a band. In the wake of the Las
Speaker 1: Vegas shootings, both the White House and the National Rifle
Speaker 1: Association have indicated an openness to considering more regulation. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Patrick J. Keiger, produced by Tristan McNeil,
Speaker 1: and For more on this and other topics, please visit
Speaker 1: us at how stuff works dot com.