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Maryland's top legislative leaders are backing a proposal to expand the state's automatic-weapons ban in 2018 by prohibiting the sale of bump stocks, a device used to accelerate the firing of semiautomatic weapons, including during last month's Las Vegas mass shooting.
Legislative aides for Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said Wednesday that the lawmakers would support prohibiting sales of such mechanisms, a development first reported by the Baltimore Sun.
"There is no reason that bump stocks should exist," Busch said. "Think of the number of people who could have been saved in Las Vegas if there wasn't a bump stock."
Sen. Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and Del. David Moon (D-Montgomery) have promised to introduce a bill next year to ban such devices, and Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said during a news conference Tuesday that it is "worth discussing doing something about bump stocks."
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a Maryland law that bans the sale of semiautomatic guns with certain military-style features. The law had been upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.
Continue Reading: Maryland's top Democratic lawmakers want to ban 'bump stocks' for firearms