Orlando senator files bump stock bill in Florida Senate

At least 12 of the weapons found in Stephen Paddock's Las Vegas hotel room were outfitted with bump stocks, which allowed the semi-automatic weapons to mimic the gunfire of automatic ones. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Democratic State Sen. Linda Stewart, on Monday officially filed a bill Monday with the Florida Senate to ban the sale of bump stocks.

In a press conference last week, while standing next to Pulse shooting survivors and family members, Stewart said she planned to file SB 456 once she got back to Tallahassee. Her remarks were made just days after 58 people were killed during a mass shooting in Las Vegas.

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The gunman, Stephen Paddock, modified his weapons with bump stocks to carry out the deadly shooting.

The bill would prohibit the sale of gun conversion kits or tools that effetely make firearms mimic automatic weapon fire. Stewart's bill would make the devices illegal to import, sell or gift in Florida. People who currently own bump stocks would be required to turn them over to law enforcement agencies.

During the announcement, Pulse survivor Angel Santiago Jr. encouraged Florida legislators to support Stewart's bill, "so we can finally have some positive change here in Orlando." 

Stewart filled a bill, SB 196, banning the sale of military-style assault weapons to civilians in the Senate last year, after the June 12 shooting at Pulse nightclub, but it never got a hearing. She refiled that bill again this week. State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando) filed a companion bill in the Florida House.

On Tuesday, bipartisan legislation banning gun accessories, such as bump stocks, was formally introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, led by one of the most politically endangered House Republicans, Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo.


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