No major shift in gun laws since Sandy Hook shooting
LAS VEGAS -- California Senator Dianne Feinstein proposed a nationwide ban Wednesday on devices that can turn rifles into rapid-fire machine guns.
Feinstein has long supported gun control measures, but with little success.
Stephen Paddock was able to pour hundreds of rounds into the crowd of concertgoers below his hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino because the devices — bump fire stocks — are legal.
"You have to stand up and say enough is enough," Feinstein said.
With some Republicans open to a hearing, it may have a chance. But recent efforts, after mass shootings like in Las Vegas, have met fierce opposition.
Back in 2013, after 20 children and seven adults were massacred by a person with a semiautomatic rifle, Feinstein proposed a law against those weapons. Congress voted it down.
In fact, despite an average of one mass shooting of four or more people each day since Sandy Hook, there's been no major shift in the nation's gun laws.
"I think the gun lobby has been very effective in promoting the overall idea that any regulation is a violation of the 2nd Amendment," said Daniel Webster, director of Johns Hopkins University's Center for Gun Policy and Research.
New Jersey shooting range owner Ross Osias agrees.
"It's not the device, it's the people," Osias said. "And unfortunately, you can't fix crazy until it happens."
Even though a recent Pew poll shows 68 percent of Americans favor an assault weapons ban, a Republican-controlled Congress makes that type of ban unlikely.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, last year, Republicans received over $54 million in advertising and donations from the NRA. Democrats received $265 dollars.
In advertising alone, organizations that oppose any new gun legislation are out spending gun control proponents 10 to one. As for those bump fire stocks that Congress may ban, retailers are selling out of them.
