There is now less than two weeks left to comment, and voice your outrage, on ATF’s proposed regulations ban on bump stocks and semi-autos. For starters, the proposed regulations would ban bump stocks outright—and turn gun owners who fail to comply as instant felons. It would do this by classifying bump stocks as “machineguns.” And, under the Hughes Amendment (18 U.S.C. 922(o)), every “machinegun” manufactured after May, 1986, is banned for civilian use with no grandfather clause or grace period.
This means every bump stock owner immediately becomes a felon, subject to a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison. Now, you may not care about bump stocks … may not own a bump stock … and may think these regulations are harmless because they won’t affect you in the least—but that’s where you would be wrong. These regulations would most certainly set the table for a future ban on millions of semi-automatic firearms.
Here’s the bottom line: The regs claim that bump stocks make semi-automatic weapons fire “automatically.” (See p. 13443 of the ATF regs.) Well, if that’s so, then the same can be said about many other common items around the house—belt loops, rubber bands, index fingers, etc.
The current regulations do not classify any AR-15 or other semi-automatic rifle you own as a machine gun—not yet. However, gun owners should not be surprised if a future anti-gun administration uses these ATF regs to deem that semi-autos like AR-15s are too readily convertible to machine guns.
That’s because:
- According to these regulations, a bump stock can “readily restore” a semi-auto into a machinegun, simply because the gun owner can effectively fire the weapon continuously with a “single pull” of the trigger.
- Under federal law (at 26 U.S.C. 5845(b)), any firearm that can be “readily restored” or “converted” to fire automatically is a “machinegun.” Period. End of story.
And as noted above, given that there are a countless number of items which can be used to bump fire a semi-auto, an anti-gun administration could deem that millions of rifles are “readily restorable” and, therefore, are banned. I don’t believe this is the result desired by the current administration. Yet, it’s the unintended consequences of gun control that we have seen over and over again.
The Slippery Slope of Gun Control
Remember how Obama tried to use the armor piercing bullet ban to outlaw common green tip M855 ammo for the AR-15—or build upon prior import bans to outlaw semi-automatic shotguns? Or how he attempted to use laws regulating gun dealers to punish private gun owners selling more than one personal gun with five years in jail and a $250,000 fine? Or when he expanded the reach of the anti-gun ObamaCare law by telling doctors they could glean information on gun owners and feed them into a federal database? Or when he sought to expand the so-called NICS Improvement Act to outlaw millions of Social Security recipients from owning firearms?
Gun control leftists are constantly trying to expand the reach of every gun control law on the books. Consider how the Brady Law has resulted in hundreds of thousands of military veterans losing their gun rights. Or how laws supposedly aimed at stopping criminals from carrying weapons have incarcerated innocent victims such as Shaneen Allen, a lawful concealed carry holder from Pennsylvania.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi hopes the Bump Stock Ban results in more Gun Control. Examples of gun control’s slippery slope abound at the federal and state level. Heck, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she “certainly hopes” that a bump stock ban will result in a slippery slope for more gun control. Well, she may be right. And gun owners may one day look back at these bump stock regs as the catalyst that gun banners used to ban AR-15s and other semi-automatic firearms.
The comment period on this AR-15 ban will be closing soon (June 27). You have just under two weeks to make your voice heard. Please feel free to use our suggested comments here. You can copy-and-paste GOA’s prewritten text to the ATF—or amend them in any way you deem fit.
Please submit your comments to the ATF, and tell them you are 100% against any infringement of your Second Amendment rights and this ban targeting AR-15s and other popular sporting rifles. Now is the time to voice your outrage!
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How can you restore something to what it never was in the first place?
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I strongly disagree with a bump stock band! Although I don’t own a bump stock I believe anyone who wants to own a bump stock should be able to buy as many as they want. I have served in the Army as a M.P. for three years and served 32 years in law enforcement for the state and believe every American has the right to own any firearm or firearm accessory they so choose to poses under the second ammendment! What part of shall not infringe do you not understand! The only people who are baned from owning firearm accessories such as a bump stock will be law abiding gun owners as criminals don’t abide by the law anyway. When has the people of this nation ordered the employee’s of the A.T.F.&E. to make any changes? Never! There hasn’t been a constitutional amendment to the second ammendment! Therefore any band to bump stocks is unlawful!
Please leave us legal carrying and gun owners alone. Why persecute those of us who do everything legal and and the up and up. We’re not the problem. Thanx.
I fear that no matter what we do, or say, the writing is on the wall. Conservatives are too silent. And they let this Country’s hating left, walk all over them. We need a lot of squeaky wheels to drown out the anti-freedom nuts. We need to be the big bullies to intimidate the ones who are leading this Nation into the gutter.
Based on my age, I guess that it’s a consolation to think that I won’t have to put up with this much longer. My years are numbered.
We need a lot more people like our President. He can’t tow the line alone. We need miracles to overcome Satan’s work.
BANNING BUMP STOCKS IS NOT ANSWER TO THE SENSELESS KILLING OF INOCENT PEOPLE…THE BATF NEW EXACTLY WHAT THIS HOBBIE ACCESSORY COULD DO IF USED FOR EVIL AND UNLAWFUL USE WHEN IT WAS OK,D FOR SALE..SO MANY THINGS CAN BE USED AND ABUSED TO SERVE THE SAME PURPOSE,TO KILL AIMLESSLY AND VICIOUSLY…THE LIST CAN GO ON AND ON…A BUMP STOCK ACCESSORY DID NOT KILL ALL THOSE PEOPLE IN LAS VEGAS…A DERANGED HUMAN BEING USED IT FOR UNLAWFUL PURPOSES..AGAIN GUNS DON,T KILL PEOPLE..PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE…BETTER EXTENSIVE BACKGROUND CHECKS AND EDUCATION IS THE ANSWER…THE PARKLAND SCHOOL SHOOTING IN TEXAS WAS COMMITTED WITH A STANDARD SHOT GUN AND A THIRTY EIGHT REVOLVER…WILL THEY BE BANNED NEXT..??… THANKS DAVE
I always thought the actual trigger group was the defining factor in altering a fire arm from semi to auto , not how fast the trigger is pulled . The sear ,disconnector and trigger are still a single pull ,i.e. semi trigger. Good old government changing the rules to fit there needs! Guess I should stop fanning my Colt SA !
2nd Amendment- A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. It protects the 1st Amendment – Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. As President Trump replied to reporters when questioned about Kim Jong-un’s
I am not a supporter of bump stocks, but more important than that, I am not a supporter of instantly making those who legally have them becoming felons. The criminal element will not turn them in, and will be the only persons with them when they are made illegal. This will be a very tough issue to deal with, and the only thing I am afraid of is the one we can usually count on, and that is our present elected officials will screw it up. We need to voice our opinion loud and clear. “We will not give up our second amendment right.” We know who is attempting to rid us of our constitutional rights, and we must vote them out of office. Those who do not see their efforts, will see them when they try to take away the rights they hold dear, because they will not stop until they have ultimate power, then it will be too late, because they will have removed our right to elect our representatives in our democratic republic.