More than 89,000 people have weighed in on a proposed nationwide ban on bump stocks, the device used in a Las Vegas concert massacre that left 58 people dead last October. The 90-day comment period ended at midnight Wednesday, and gun control advocates and Second Amendment fans from Texas and across the U.S. were eager to share their fears — of violence, or of losing their gun rights, reports the Dallas Morning News. Southlake Carroll, Tx., Senior High School junior Alanna Miller commented that she was at a concert on the night of the Las Vegas shooting, and that her experience led her to support the ban. “The access and availability to [sic] bump stocks enabled the shooter in Las Vegas to make his attack as deadly as it was,” Miller wrote. “I couldn’t help but think that it could’ve been MY own concert that turned deadly.”
State House candidate Republican Matt Savino opposed the ban on legal grounds, noting that the trigger still functions separately each time a semi-automatic weapon is fired, even with the assistance of a bump stock. “While bump stock devices will now be treated as machine guns under these regulations, they also raise serious questions in regard to AR-15s and other semi-automatic rifles — as they are now on the brink of being designated as machine guns by the next anti-gun administration,” Savino wrote. Bump stocks modify rifles to mimic the rapid fire of automatic machine guns, which are illegal. Even if the regulation is approved, bump stock prohibitions can be hard to enforce. At least seven states enacted bans after Las Vegas, as have some cities.