After over a year of increased gun-control awareness and activism from the public, the Trump administration officially banned bump-fire stocks on Tuesday, Dec. 18.

Bump-stocks are attachments that make it easier for a gunman to fire rounds from a semi-automatic weapon. The use of bump-stocks became a topic of discussion after a gunman in Las Vegas added them to his riffles to fire on concertgoers, killing around 60 people, last October.

“I am surprised it took so long for him to do this, but not surprised he did it since bump-stocks have nothing to do with the Second Amendment,” Ella Sunshine ’19 said. “They are solely for the use of mass murder.”

According to CNN, “The [new] rule concludes that bump-fire stocks, ‘slide-fire’ devices, and devices with certain similar characteristics all fall within the prohibition on machine guns by allowing a ‘shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger,’ and therefore, they are illegal under federal law.”

Along with a few other states, Connecticut banned bump-stocks prior to the executive branch’s decision.

“It’s great that the federal government has followed Connecticut’s lead in banning bump stocks,” State-Senator Elect Will Haskell ’14 said. “Connecticut has shown the rest of the country that what works here could work everywhere.”

Lydia Donovan ’19, who participated in the two walkouts held at Staples last year, had previously fought for the ban of bump stocks.

“Banning bump stocks was one of our goals because it turns regular weapons into automatic weapons which makes them deadlier,” she said. “Regular people shouldn’t need an automatic weapon.”

However, others think that this ban won’t solve the complicated issue of gun control.

“The people who want to commit horrible atrocities already have the means,” Olivia Utter ’19 said. “Banning bump stocks will not prevent anything that was already going to occur from occurring. In my opinion, it’s a social change that we need, not a policy change at the moment.”