'Shame on him for disrespecting the dead': Nevada senator erupts after Sen. JD Vance's bump stock remarks

WASHINGTON — Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., tore into Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, on Monday over remarks he made about bump stocks as the Senate grapples with whether to ban them.

Vance, who is widely considered a vice presidential contender on the GOP ticket with former President Donald Trump, called efforts by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats to ban the devices “a huge distraction.”

“I think that we have to ask ourselves: What is the real gun violence problem in this country, and are we legislating in a way that solves fake problems? Or solves real problems?” Vance told reporters. “And my very strong suspicion is that the Schumer legislation is aimed at a PR problem, not something that’s going to meaningfully reduce gun violence in this country.”

Vance also said he was concerned the bill could “end up just inhibiting the rights of law abiding Americans.” When pressed on the high level of dead and injured in Las Vegas after the 2017 shooting, he said: “The question is: How many people would have been shot alternatively? And you have to ask yourself the question: Will anyone actually not choose a bump stock because Chuck Schumer passes a piece of legislation?”

His comments drew a fiery response from Rosen, who faces re-election this year in the state where a shooter killed 58 people in 2017 with firearms equipped with bump stocks.

“This is not a fake problem,” she told reporters. “Let him come to Las Vegas. Let him see the memorial for those people who died. Let him talk to those families. It’s not a fake problem. Those families are dead.”

“Las Vegas was changed forever because of what the shooter did and the bump stocks helped him. And let JD Vance come — and I’m going to take him to the memorials. We’re