The whole bump stock thing was a red herring anyway. Serious gun enthusiasts think they are stupid. It was one of the rare Trump Caving moments, where he gave up, for all intentions, nothing. Bump stocks are amusing - but dangerous - toys, used primarily to wildly spray a lot of ammo in a fairly short period of time.
Well stated!
You are wrong. It is much more than a red herring. It is unconditional and a terrible precedent. Trump gets zero benefit from doing it. It was a stupid playing checkers not 4 d chess move. The Bump Stocks utility/effectiveness is irrelevant. It is NOT a machine gun. Arbitrarily calling it one and outlawing it is egregious. Had Obama done it, there would be universal outrage on the right. Trump does a lot right but he effed up big time on this.
This is true.
The Trump Administration's direction to the ATF to reclassify bump stocks, with the NRA's help, was an attempt to fend off more onerous legislation that was being generated that would potentially have banned not only bump stocks, but also any trigger modifications from factory specs whatsoever.
I understand why it was done, but I still wholeheartedly disagree with the move. It sets a dangerous precedence that anything that the ATF has previously approved through a determination letter can be rescinded at any time. Next on the list: Arm Stabilization Braces. There is wholesale circumventing of the SBR laws with AR "pistols" with stabilizing braces that for all intents and purposes are SBRs without an NFA tax stamp.
Also on the hit list: Binary triggers and trigger cranks.
Exactly. And all the bellyaching about this ban is a waste of energy. Bump-stocks are a joke; and, as you aptly stated, the issue was a throw-away red herring from the get-go.
That was my take on them too, but I’m going to have to mention here that I had never heard of them until the Las Vegas shooting, at least not to my knowledge.
It would seem to me it would be very hard to keep the gun on target with the bumping.
I haven’t considered them to be that necessary to my gun rights, but then those that are enthusiasts have a right to be dissenters on this.
I’m generally a very pro gun rights individual and don’t want to see any new laws enacted.
California practically wants a urine sample before you use your gun these days.
You are way way off base in your assesment. This ban will protect absolutely no one and gained nothing for the President or the People. What it has done without question is lost at least a half a million votes, probably a lot more for 2020. The half million people that own bump stocks almost certainly voted for Trump in 2016 and now that most of them are felons waiting to be caught thanks to this ban you can bet your wallet those half million voters wont be voting for the president. No sir they will most likely just sit out the election. I also think the half mil figure is way low and is more likely over a million. In the event this next election is close at all this ban may well lose the election. How many votes did Bush win over Gore? This was a huge mistake.
The bump-stock ban is the foot-in-the-door for a all out ban in semi-auto weapons!
The demonrats are already plotting how to go forward on a semi-auto ban!.
“It was one of the rare Trump Caving moments, where he gave up, for all intentions, nothing. “
Wrong. Machine guns have a very specific definition in the law.
“For purposes of federal law, a “machinegun” is defined as: Any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manually reloading, by a single function of the trigger.”
Trump’s EO now says if anything helps you pull the trigger really really quickly, it is now an NFA weapon. This order means the next democrat can decide that launching 20 rounds in about 3 seconds is a machine gun. They can deem that any weapon that was initially designed as a machine gun may not be possessed in a semi-auto variant.
Goodbye AR, AK, FN, M1919, M2, Thompson, etc.
Another obscure piece of groundwork was laid for this with the MAC-10 and similar guns. If they fired from an open bolt the ATF deemed them machine guns even if they were semi auto. Original Thompsons were open bolt, the new repro semi autos are not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr4uGexRHE0
Look at the rate this non-Mikulek guy accurately blows through this 20 rounder.
He had his reasons after Vegas, Bump stocks were only useful there because he was shooting at a target the size of “minute-of-a Costco warehouse”, they are an idiot’s tool and whatever. But Trump did set a very bad precedent with this ban.
My understanding is that bump stocks were first invented to allow handicapped people to fire a gun.
One of them needs to sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act. That should tie our entire Federal court system in knots for the next thirteen years.
Agreed,
Should have invested!
/s
THIS. IS. NOT. ABOUT F******G. BUMP. STOCKS.
Federal law clearly says a bump stock is not a machine gun. It is very cut and dried. The president determined they should be classified as MGs anyway, so ATF tortured the English language sufficiently to do it.
The president created law out of thin air without congressional action. Period.
The ban broadly outlaws devices that help increase rate of fire. Other things that increase rate of fire: aftermarket triggers, standard capacity magazines, lightweight bolt carriers, recoil compensators.
I don’t give a hoot in Hell if you think bump stocks are safe or not. We have a God given right to them, and we also have a strong interest in preventing the executive branch from accruing more power. We have a word for a man who creates law unilaterally without the consent of the people as expressed through their representatives. This man is called a king.
The President is merely the President of the United States. He is not king of the United States.
People who think this is about stocks and that it’s ok to ban them because they’re silly need to get their heads out of their asses.
They were banned at our gun club years before the Vegas shooting. Idiots sprayed bullets over the berms into adjacent ranges during cease fires when people were retrieving their targets. It is lucky no one was hit. They were considered a severe safety hazard. There was no one who stood up for them.
Agree. IMO Trump decided to do the very least thing he could do to derail further calls for gun control. I’m opposed to all gun control but in reality this is not a big deal.
“Serious gun enthusiasts think they are stupid.”
I’m serious into self defense. For self defense or hunting purposes, I just can’t see owning one. For out of home self defense, a concealed pistol. For inside the home either a pistol or shot gun.
But this ban does give the lefties an inch. As the saying goes, give an inch, take a mile.