“President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has directed his attorney general to propose changes that would ban so-called bump stocks, which make it easier to fire rounds more quickly,” kdvr.com reports . . .
“Just a few moments ago I signed a memo directing the attorney general to propose regulations that ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns,'” Trump said at a Medal of Valor event at the White House, addressing Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “I expect these regulations to be finalized, Jeff, very soon,” Trump said.
Clearly, the CIC was referring to bump fire stocks. Because . . .
converting a rifle to full auto elsewise is already illegal. And over at Stately Wayne Manor. . .
Moments earlier, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump ordered the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to review bump fire stocks, which she said had been completed. She said movement on that front would take place shortly.
“The President, when it comes to that, is committed to ensuring that those devices are — again I’m not going to get ahead of the announcement, but I can tell you that the President doesn’t support use of those accessories,” Sanders said.
A bump fire stock does not turn a rifle into a machine gun. With a bump fire stock attached to a rifle, there’s still one trigger press per fired shot. (As opposed to a machine gun’s multiple shots per trigger press.) And that means that the Justice Department is heading into some dark, dangerous waters, gun-rights-wise.
To ban bump fire stocks, the Trump administration will have to set some kind of standard for “acceptable” rate-of-fire. There is just no other way to do it. And once you do that, well, you’ve opened the door to banning all sorts of otherwise benign devices, like competition triggers.
And once you do that, you’ve opened the door to an anti-gun rights administration’s ability to ban other functions and features — as they do in New York to ban “assault rifles.”
The Second Amendment’s protection of Americans’ right to keep and bear arms says nothing — not a word — about what type of arms are protected. The forthcoming bump fire stock ban is a clear infringement on Americans’ gun rights. And a bad precedent.