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Rifle bump stocks in high demand after use in Las Vegas massacre, gun stores say

OVIEDO, Fla. — While many people may not have known what a bump stock was before Sunday, the device used by a gunman in Las Vegas has gained national attention.

A bump stock is a device that can be attached to a semi-automatic rifle and, in essence, allow it to be fired at speeds approaching a fully automatic machine gun.

With the bump stock’s new notoriety – 12 of the devices were found after the Las Vegas attack that killed 58 and injured hundreds – Central Florida gun store owners say they have become a high-demand item.

Jeremy Sternisha, with The Armories Gun Shop in Oviedo, said bump stocks have not been a popular item in the past.

“We haven’t sold one in the two years that we’ve been open,” he said.

Now the interest has skyrocketed, and gun shop owners and managers believe the fear of new regulations is to blame.

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“We’ve definitely seen an increase in phone calls of people asking if we have bump stocks or asking how they work, or what the deal is,” Sternisha said.

The National Rifle Association released a statement Thursday afternoon saying that the status of bump stocks needs to be examined.

“The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,” the statement said.

Bump stock makers Slide Fire Solutions and Bump Fire Systems have stopped taking orders for the devices due to an “extremely high demand.”

Getting them now is next to impossible, Sternisha said.

“Our distributors are out of stock, so even if we wanted to order them, we couldn’t,” he said.