Posted on 03/23/2018 4:29:05 PM PDT by Simon Green
WASHINGTON — Firearm bump stocks would have to be surrendered, destroyed or made inoperable under a ban proposed Friday by the Justice Department.
The devices, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire as fast as a machine gun, became the focus of concern following the discovery that Stephen Paddock attached them to 14 of the 22 rifles he used in the October 2017 shooting rampage in Las Vegas, killing 58 people and injuring more than 700.
"After the senseless shooting in Las Vegas, this proposed rule is a critical step in our effort to reduce the threat of gun violence that is in keeping with the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in announcing the proposed rule.
President Donald Trump listed the bump stock ban as one of the measures he would support after February's school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
When attached to a rifle, a bump stock allows recoil action to move the weapon back and forth against the trigger finger. After the first pull, the finger remains stationary and the weapon repeatedly bumps against it: in essence, the rifle then fires itself.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms determined earlier that bump stocks should not be classified as machine guns, because the weapons they were attached to still required a separate trigger pull for each round fired.
But in proposing the new rule Friday, the Justice Department said the earlier ruling "does not reflect the best interpretation of the term 'machine gun.'"
Weapons classified as machine guns are grandfathered and may be kept if they were legally possessed before the Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed. But because no bump stocks existed before the law was passed, the proposed rule said, gun owners who have the devices now "would be required to surrender them, destroy them, or otherwise render them permanently inoperable."
The proposed rule will be published in the Federal Register next week, providing for 90 days of public comment. The government can then make the rule final.
I have no trouble at all with making something illegal that alters the original capabilities of a legal weapon.
Yep, right now those bump stocks are a burning issue with me, right alongside the status of the darling DACA people.
Try again, Pete Williams.
The grandfathering date was 1986 with the passage of the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986, and the Hughes Amendment that closed the machine gun registry.
Rod said this was OK?
Who is piling on? The president was bragging about this on Twitter today. Right after his disasterous press conference.
I need to pull back from this site and others for a while, I think. I haven’t been this depressed since Hussein was president.
“”After the senseless shooting in Las Vegas, this proposed rule is a critical step in our effort to reduce the threat of gun violence that is in keeping with the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in announcing the proposed rule.”
So after thwarting Trump on every important front he folds like a cardboard belt on this issue,
This move will solve almost all our problems and restore faith in the justice system. /s
It's total insanity. The globalist, godless Left wants to ban all guns, and these incremental steps of "banning" this and "banning" are a march towards tyranny.
There are law abiding citizens in this nation who have been arrested and had their lives ruined because they "possessed" a piece of plastic or a piece of stamped sheet metal with a spring in it.
While these clowns are screwing around with meaningless unconstitutional and unenforceable rules about silly pieces of plastic......................SorozNazi and Obama and HilLIARy and Pelosi, etal
remain free, prosperous, loud, and obnoxious. and happy
truly, we have a a pathetic, miserable excuse for representative governance
“President Donald Trump listed the bump stock ban as one of the measures he would support after February’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida.”
Oh eat me. It wasn’t a bump stock in Florida. His New York is coming out.
Well Trump made him do it so take it up with Trump.
Recall the gun control meeting with members of Congress when Trump said he would take care of gun stocks and no legislation needed.
Bite me Sessions. I’m not tuning over anything. You haven’t even begun to see an uprising yet.
criminalize my rubberband you dumbass
We’ll have bump stock felons and the Democrats will walk for their numerous felonies in the Obama admin. Unbelievable.
MOLON LABE, Jeffy!
I really used to like Sessions. I thought he was the best Senator. (Maybe he was).
But, has he accomplished anything other than recuse himself from the Russian investigation, go after pot, and go after bump stocks?
Their attorney general immediately bends the law to go after guns, funding abortion, and affirmative action. Our guy doesn’t do anything about selling abortion parts or breaking election laws the first year.
Agreed. This is a token gesture by the Trump administration to do something for the whiners while not infringing on the RKBA. Now that this is done... Let’s move along.
I don’t believe anything we’ve been told about the Las Vegas shooting.
McCabe was put in charge of the investigation in Las Vegas....enough said!
I’m not even convinced Paddock was the shooter. That dude has FBI asset / CIA asset oozing from every pore.
every stout rubber band is a bump stock
Still a disaster is this Sessions. Worst appointment yet
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.