WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 04: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) (C) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) points to a photograph of a rifle with a 'bump stock' during a news conference to announce proposed gun control legislation at the U.S. Capitol October 4, 2017 in Washington, DC. In reaction to Sunday's mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 59 people dead and hundreds injured, Feinstein's legislation would ban devices that could make weapons fully automatic. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
California Senator Dianne Feinstein is reviving a bill that would ban after-market rifle modifications like the 'bump stocks' that the Las Vegas shooter used to kill 59 people and injure 500 more.
Feinstein told reporters today when she announced the bill, that if automatic weapons are illegal under U.S. law, then so should those modifications that can make a semi-automatic weapon reach the same rapid firing potential.
"The only reason to modify a gun, is to kill as many people as possible, in as short a time as possible."
Under the bill, anyone using the devices would be charged as if they possessed an illegal machine gun. The senator originally introduced the potential bump stock ban in her assault weapons bill four years ago, but it was defeated in Congress.
Feinsten says her bill that bans bump stocks is extremely straightforward.
"Ban manufacturing or possession of accessories that accelerate a semi-automatic rifle's rate of fire, to that of an automatic."
Because of several mass shootings over the last few years, at places like the Pulse Nightclub and Sandy Hook Elementary School, Feinstein said she had believed Congress would have acted by now.
"Some have said: 'We shouldn't do this now. We should wait. Now is not the time.' Ladies and gentlemen, when is the time?"
Senator Richard Blumenthal joined Feinstein in endorsing the bill. Speaking with an emotional tint, he pleaded with President Donald Trump to support their bill.
"I hope you will provide leadership, and at the very least back a bill that stops the killer accelerators like these bump stocks."
Bump stocks can cost as little as $99, and can increase a semi-automatic weapon's rate of fire from up to 60 rounds per minute to as much as 800 rounds per minute.
Senator Bernie Sanders said he believes the American people have become numb to mass shootings.
"In fact there are more mass shootings in this country than there are days in the year. Events that become so frequent, that we become numb to them."
The Washington Post reports that top Republican leaders have pledged to consider a ban on the 'bump stocks,' Thursday morning.