Small-town Texas company that invented 'bump stock' is in the spotlight after Las Vegas shooting
MORAN -- In this tiny West Texas town on Thursday,
Jeremiah Cottle was trying to take comfort in the support he has gotten
from neighbors.
But elsewhere, there was little comfort. Cottle and the company he owns, Slide Fire Solutions, have come under heavy criticism for selling a rifle attachment that few outside of gun enthusiast circles had ever heard of before this week.
But since a gunman killed 58 people attending a country music concert Sunday night in Las Vegas, a flood of attention has turned to Cottle's little-known device, called a "bump stock" or "bump fire stock," which may have enabled Stephen Paddock to turn semiautomatic, one-shot-per-trigger-pull rifles into ones able to fire much like machine guns.
Online commenters have called his invention "irresponsible" and said he has blood on his hands. Retailers have rushed to pull the items from shelves and websites. Members of Congress have called for the bump stock to be banned. And in a surprise announcement, even the National Rifle Association said it would not oppose regulation of the device.
Unshaven and red-eyed, Cottle, 40, declined to talk about the shooting or the blowback against the company he founded in 2010.
All of the attention clearly has taken him by surprise.
"I'm a hunting and fishing kind of person," he said, standing in front of his business that is housed in a corrugated metal building at the end of a gravel driveway.
But elsewhere, there was little comfort. Cottle and the company he owns, Slide Fire Solutions, have come under heavy criticism for selling a rifle attachment that few outside of gun enthusiast circles had ever heard of before this week.
But since a gunman killed 58 people attending a country music concert Sunday night in Las Vegas, a flood of attention has turned to Cottle's little-known device, called a "bump stock" or "bump fire stock," which may have enabled Stephen Paddock to turn semiautomatic, one-shot-per-trigger-pull rifles into ones able to fire much like machine guns.
Online commenters have called his invention "irresponsible" and said he has blood on his hands. Retailers have rushed to pull the items from shelves and websites. Members of Congress have called for the bump stock to be banned. And in a surprise announcement, even the National Rifle Association said it would not oppose regulation of the device.
Unshaven and red-eyed, Cottle, 40, declined to talk about the shooting or the blowback against the company he founded in 2010.
All of the attention clearly has taken him by surprise.
"I'm a hunting and fishing kind of person," he said, standing in front of his business that is housed in a corrugated metal building at the end of a gravel driveway.
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