Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a Justice Department proposal to classify bump stock devices as an illegal firearm.
The proposed rule change would alter regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Sessions recommended lumping such devices into the already outlawed category of so-called "machineguns." Existing laws bar most Americans from owning fully automatic firearms.
A bump stock works by using the recoil of the initial shot to bounce the rifle off the shooter's shoulder, giving a legal semi-automatic rifle rapid-fire capability.
If Sessions' proposal becomes official, owners of bump stocks and similar devices would be "required to surrender, destroy or otherwise render the devices permanently inoperable."
