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.
Yes it does. It allows it to be fired automatically.
Allowing the recoil against your shoulder to transmit mechanical force to the trigger is no different than filing a sear pin.
Obviously.
How?
“required to surrender them, destroy them, or otherwise render them permanently inoperable.”
Can this be done without compensation?
“required to surrender them, destroy them, or otherwise render them permanently inoperable.”
Can this be done without compensation?
—
Sure. John Roberts will just declare it’s a tax, and then they can do anything they want.
/s
I stand corrected. As you point out, the restrictions fall into the category of state restrictions and Federal restrictions. The Supreme Court has not ruled automatic weapons illegal, but it has upheld challenges to states banning them. Nor has it overturned those Federal restrictions you pointed out. So to the extent that the bump stock ban conforms to existing Federal law, it is not new law per se but enforcement of existing law.
Yep, the goal was never safety and security, the force behind this effort detests all human beings. He was a liar and murder from the start, he longs for a death toll in the hundreds of millions. It has happened several times in the past and history is grotesquely clear. Each time a population is disarmed genocide follows. Don’t be deceived, this is a fight to the death and he is winning.
Don’t be obtuse. Machine guns are precisely defined by law. Bump firing, either hand held or by the assist of a sliding stock do not alter the function of the weapon.
You can rapid fire just like a bump stock with a little practice. It’s still 1 shot for every trigger pull. A machine gun fires multiple rounds with one trigger pull. They wll use this to ban all sorts of gun modifications. These are the same idiots that think a pistol grip and flash supressor make a gun more deadly.
I’m willing to listen to disagreement, so why don’t you take the time to actually address me point by point rather than taking the lazy route? You sway no one with your “everything you say is wrong’ non-argument.
No, I’m not an expert in this area but I do know that there are existing state and federal statues that restrict automatic weapons in some form - statues that have never been overturned by the courts. To the extent that the ban on bump stocks conforms to existing federal law, it is not new law per se but enforcement of existing law. That’s my main point. If you don’t like the bump stock ban, then fight the underlying federal law.
I hear South Africa, Iran, and Syria have the best reputations for helping out the common man.
Germany & Russia used to hold that honor.
It must be painful to be that ignorant.
The point is that bump fire stocks do not convert a semi auto into a machine gun. Yes they increase the rate of fire, but machine guns are not defined by rate of fire.
Well the Barrett M82A1 and M107 just have a 10 round magazine for that little plinker .....
isn’t this legislating by the executive branch?
How about criminalizing perjury by former government employees, oh feckless one.
Banning bumpstocks will lead to banning all semi-auto firearms.
Yeah, flash suppressors that help limit muzzle rise, slings that make them easier to carry, scopes to increase the shooter's accuracy at greater distances, recoil pads that make larger caliber weapons more tolerable on the shoulder, adjustable triggers........all things that alter the original capabilities of a legal weapon.
As stupid as I think slidefire stocks are.....they still require one trigger pull for each round fired. Secondly, full auto weapons are not illegal to own - they're just expensive, made before 1986, and require tax stamps. Third, as others have mentioned, you can get the same effect from a rubber band, or belt loop, as you can a slidefire.
FUJS
While your recitation of the particulars does give fodder to the pedantic, your reasoning is fundamentally sound.
Bump stocks DO change the mechanics of firing the rifle in that you no longer “pull” the trigger repeatedly to fire the weapon: that’s the point of the thing.
Your critics are just petulant “paraphernalia” users pissed off that their “I can use it to smoke tobacco” excuse doesn’t wash anymore.
Ignore the “this does away with semiautomatic weapons” nonsense; that’s as fatuous as the “Trump admitted to sexual assault” histrionics.
Then Jerry Miculek should have his trigger finger cut off? He has videos where he can outshoot an automatic firearm.
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