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Vern Buchanan indicates preliminary support for restricting ‘bump stocks’

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

In the wake of Sunday night’s massacre in Las Vegas where nearly 60 people died, Florida Republicans are indicating they will support a gun-control measure.

South Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo said he will introduce a measure to prohibit bump stocks, a device that modified rifles to allow them to fire faster.

Several of the 23 guns used by Stephen Paddock in his shooting spree were equipped with bump stocks.

Sarasota area Republican Vern Buchanan indicated Thursday that he would support such legislation.

Automatic weapons — aka machine guns — are already tightly regulated. Since 1986, the transfer or possession of machine-guns has been prohibited. Exceptions were made for transfers of machine-guns to, or possession of machine-guns by, government agencies, and those lawfully possessed before May of 1986.

However, in 2010, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ruled bump stocks were considered a part and therefore would not be regulated as a weapon.

California Democrat Dianne Feinstein announced a Senate version that would prohibit bump stocks. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson is a co-sponsor of the bill.

Mitch Perry has been a reporter with Extensive Enterprises since November of 2014. Previously, he served as five years as the political editor of the alternative newsweekly Creative Loafing. He also was the assistant news director with WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa from 2000-2009, and currently hosts MidPoint, a weekly talk show, on WMNF on Thursday afternoons. He began his reporting career at KPFA radio in Berkeley. He's a San Francisco native who has now lived in Tampa for 15 years and can be reached at [email protected]

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