Connecticut’s governor vowed Tuesday to sign a bill passed by the state legislature banning “bump stocks.”
Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, praised the Connecticut state Senate and House for approving the bill, which prohibits the purchase and sale of devices that increase the rate of fire for semiautomatic weapons. He said he will signed the measure into law in the coming days.
The state Senate passed the bill Tuesday and the House passed the legislation last week.
“I have yet to hear one legitimate reason why anyone needs to own a device that can fire 90 bullets every 10 seconds,” Malloy said. “This vote today shows that we, as policy makers in Connecticut, are listening to the overwhelming, collective voices of the people and not powerful lobbyists from the NRA, who are fighting opposing interests.”
Malloy called on Congress to enact stricter gun laws and said a “patchwork of gun safety laws” passed on a state-by-state basis “isn’t the solution.”
The governor proposed the legislation aimed at enhancements that boost the rate of fire in January.
Lawmakers at the state and federal levels called for a prohibition on bump stocks in the wake of the Oct. 1 shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas where 58 people were killed. Police found more than a dozen firearms outfitted with the devices in the hotel room belonging to the suspected gunman.
Calls for prohibitions on bump stocks were elevated again in February following a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., where 17 students and adults were killed.
The Justice Department rolled out a proposed regulation to ban bump stocks in March.
