The Washington State Patrol has started buying back rifle components called bump stocks from the public, with the first such events held Sunday.
Last week, Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill funding the buyback program, which offers $150 per bump stock returned. Legislators banned the devices in 2018 and created the buyback program at the same time, but left it unfunded.
Bump stocks – typically sliding butt stocks fitted as aftermarket modifications – allow a semiautomatic rifle to fire continuously by letting it slide back-and-forth against a user’s shoulder, causing its trigger to ‘bump’ rapidly against the user’s finger.
Washington’s 2018 ban came in the wake of a 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting in which the gunman used weapons including 14 rifles modified with bump stocks to fire over 1,000 rounds into a music festival crowd, killing 58 and wounding 413 in only 11 minutes.
Federal authorities later instituted a separate, nationwide ban, effective March 26th.
The new Washington law provides $150,000 for the patrol to purchase bump stocks. It also allows residents to turn in the devices to other law enforcement agencies and receive a receipt, redeemable by the state patrol before July.
Buybacks are held next Sunday and Monday at all WSP offices, with a limit of five bump stocks per individual. (AP, Spokesman-Review)
