Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy [official website] signed a bill into law [text, PDF] Thursday that bans bump stocks—devices added to guns so that they may fire like automatic rifles.

The law will ban “the sale or transfer, possession, manufacturing, or use of bumps stocks or other accessories to increase the rate of fire of a firearm.”

The legislation defines a “rate of fire enhancement,” which bans bump stocks, binary trigger systems, and trigger cranks in Connecticut. Violators of the bill will be guilty of a class D felony. The law will take effect October 1 of this year.

In a statement [press release] Malloy said:

This should be the law throughout the entire country. There is no reason why anyone needs to own a device that can fire 90 bullets every 10 seconds but for the mass killing of people. The most effective way of reducing gun violence isn’t through a patchwork in which the states with the weakest laws tolerate giant loopholes that negate efforts made everywhere else. The overwhelming majority of people clearly want this law—I’m glad to sign it today for Connecticut, but this will not stop our efforts to enact it nationally.

The bill passed 114-35 May 1 in the House [JURIST report] and 26-10 in the Connecticut Senate May 8.

Several states, such as Vermont [JURIST report], have introduced similar bump-stock gun legislation following their use in the Las Vegas shooting last year. Other states such as Florida, Illinois and Oregon [JURIST reports] have updated their gun legislation to include greater age restrictions, close loopholes and restrict access.