Las Vegas shooter modified rifles to shoot like automatic weapon

Investigations into the type of firearms Stephen Paddock used to gun down dozens of people and wound hundreds more in Monday’s mass shooting in Las Vegas revealed he had rigged some of the rifles to fire like an automatic weapon by using a product called a bump stock.

Bump stocks are legal because they don’t fully modify the firearm nor do they actually add up to a mechanical modification of the device.

ABC17 News called several gun stores in mid-Missouri. None of them are carrying it right now and some said that because it’s not regulated, they can’t really make any money off of selling them.

The device adds a sliding mechanism to the part of a rifle that presses into a shooter’s shoulder. Targetmasters manager Joe Gilbert said Wednesday that this modification makes the shot extremely inaccurate and dangerous.

“It’s not a loophole, it’s a way to circumvent a limitation,” Gilbert said. “No matter what you do, an ingenious person is going to find a way around it, whether they’re evil or benign.”

Democrats in Washington have already introduced a bill in the wake of Monday’s mass shooting that would ban bump stocks.

Gilbert said he wouldn’t be opposed to it being banned because it goes against everything you teach a trained shooter.

“The bump stock is one of those ‘hey Bubba, watch this’ type products that you see on YouTube and the people doing stupid things with,” he said. “It’s not a real firearm product as far as we’re concerned.”