FORT WORTH — A Texas retailer of now-banned bump stocks has transferred about 60,000 of the gun-related items to the federal government to be destroyed.

RW Arms of Fort Worth turned over the bump stocks to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The products will be shredded and recycled.

ATF agents were present as crates of new RW Arms bump stops were delivered to a shredding facility on Tuesday, the day the ban took effect.

The ban is supported by the Trump administration and follows the October 2017 shooting massacre in Las Vegas, where a gunman using bump stocks killed 58 people at an outdoor concert.

Bump stocks make semi-automatic guns rapidly fire. The government also isn’t allowing existing owners to keep bump stocks. The items must be destroyed or surrendered.

 

Houston Ship Channel reopens for daytime traffic

DALLAS — The Houston Ship Channel has been reopened for daytime traffic after flammable chemicals from a nearby petrochemical storage facility seeped into one of America’s busiest shipping lanes following a fire, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Wednesday.

The previously closed portion of the commercial waterway will operate during the day but will close at night, Capt. Richard Howes said during a morning press conference. Ships are being instructed to pass slowly through the channel and will continue to be inspected for chemicals on their hulls.

Part of the channel was closed after a fire erupted on March 17 at the Intercontinental Terminals Company in Deer Park. The blaze burned for days in the city just east of Houston and triggered air quality warnings that prompted school closures.

A dike adjacent to the facility then failed, allowing an unknow volume of chemicals to seep into nearby bayous and then the ship channel.

The channel’s partial closure has caused backups in marine traffic outside Houston’s busy port. As of Wednesday morning, there were 103 vessels waiting to enter compared to the usual 50, Howes said.

 

Texas police officer mistakes lighter for weapon, shoots man

CORPUS CHRISTI — A Corpus Christi police officer investigating two robberies at a convenience store shot a man who resembled a suspect after mistaking a lighter in his hand for a weapon, the city’s police chief said.

Police Chief Mike Markle announced Tuesday that the man shot by an officer was determined not to be a suspect in either of the Hi-Ho convenience store robberies, the Corpus Christi Caller Times reported.

Police approached the man at his home on Tuesday because he matched the description of a suspect in the robberies earlier that day, Markle said.

Police said the man was hiding his hands from officers and wasn’t complying with their requests. When the man eventually revealed his hands to police, an officer mistook an object he was holding for a weapon and shot at him, Markle said.

Police later discovered the object was a large lighter, Markle said. The man sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to the police chief. He didn’t explain what kind of weapon the officer believed the man was holding.

“The officers were searching a neighborhood for armed suspects. They’re at a heightened state of awareness, a heightened state of alert,” Markle said. “They found somebody that matched the description and for whatever reason … the individual was non-compliant, which resulted in shots fired.”

The officer involved in the shooting will be placed on administrative leave, per department policy, he said.

Markle said two other men suspected in the robberies were taken into custody. Investigations into the robberies are ongoing, he said.