US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with bipartisan members of Congress on school and community safety in the Cabinet Room of the White House on February 28, 2018 in Washington, DC. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Trump: Bump stocks will be gone
00:54 - Source: CNN
CNN  — 

Washington’s four-day bump stock buyback program was so successful state officials ran out of money.

Starting Tuesday, bump stocks are illegal in the United States. In hopes of prompting people to turn them over before the ban began, the Legislature allocated $150,000 for the buyback program, to be managed by the Washington State Patrol.

Bump stock owners would get $150 for their devices – so there was enough to buy back 1,000 devices.

A bump stock devic, (left) fit on a semiautomatic rifle to increase the firing speed.

Someone could bring up to five bump stocks and receive a voucher for each one on a first-come, first-serve basis. Authorities sent the individual a check in the mail after their voucher was processed.

The program ran out of money at noon Monday, on the final day of the buyback. The devices kept rolling in, but those owners were not compensated. Some people took them home when they learned they would not get a check, officials said.

State officials did not have a total Tuesday for all the stocks they received.

State Patrol spokesman Chris Loftis tells CNN most of the buybacks came along the Interstate 5 corridor, which runs north to south along the western portion of the state.

“We had a number of cases that people brought in only five devices,” Loftis says. But he says they may have had even more bump stocks in their possession. Authorities collected “a number of homemade devices” that fit the description of a bump stock.

The devices are meant to replace the standard stock and grip of a semiautomatic rifle. They attach to a rifle’s receiver, or frame.

The bump stock uses recoil effects to bounce the rifle off the shooter’s shoulder and bump the trigger back into the trigger finger. This speeds up what the rate of fire would have been without the bump stock. It effectively mimics fully automatic gunfire.

The Justice Department said owners should do one of two things by Tuesday: Destroy the devices, or drop them off at an ATF field office.

The Washington State Patrol said it will still continue to accept bump stocks, with no penalty against the person dropping them off, but they can’t pay anything for them. All such devices will be destroyed.

To find out how to destroy a bump stock, according to ATF guidelines, click here.