HOUSTON – A nationwide ban took effect Tuesday on bump stocks, the attachment used by the gunman in the 2017 Las Vegas massacre to make his weapons fire rapidly like machine guns.
Anyone in possession of a bump stock from now on can be charged with a federal offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms outlawed the attachments at President Donald Trump's direction after the Las Vegas gunman rained fire from his high-rise hotel suite on concertgoers, killing 58 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court declined to put the ban on hold.
According to the ATF, a bump stock must be made incapable of being readily restored to its intended function by, e.g., crushing, melting or shredding the bump stock. They can also be destroyed by cutting, so long as the bump stock is completely severed in the areas constituting critical design features, denoted by the red lines in the specific model of bump stock destruction diagrams that follow.
The bump stock must be completely severed in each area indicated by the red line.
For more information about how to destroy bump stocks, click here.
Below are Houston-area ATF offices:
- Houston Field Division (277.2 miles)
- 5825 N. Sam Houston Parkway West, Suite 300
- Houston, TX 77086
- (281) 716-8200
- San Antonio Field Office (133.8 miles)
- 6100 Bandera Road, Suite 701
- San Antonio, TX 78238
- (210) 805-2777
- Austin Field Office (140.0 miles)
- 9009 Mountain Ridge Drive, Suite 220
- Austin, TX 78759
- (512) 231-2880
- Waco Field Office (169.2 miles)
- 6801 Sanger Avenue
- Waco, TX 76710
- (254) 741-9900
- Ft. Worth Field Office (190.9 miles)
- 6000 Western Place, Suite 400
- Fort Worth, TX 76107
- (817) 862-2800
- Lubbock Field Office (208.1 miles)
- 5214 68th Street, Suite 300
- Lubbock, TX 79424
- (806) 783-2700
- Dallas Field Division (224.3 miles)
- 1114 Commerce Street, Room 303
- Dallas, TX 75242
- (469) 227-4300
- Beaumont Field Office (355.1 miles)
- 2615 Calder Avenue, Suite 330
- Beaumont, TX 77702
- (409) 981-6670