Wayne LaPierre appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation to face questions on the gun rights group’s stance on bump fire stocks. (Video after the jump, click here for a full transcript.) The NRA Veep went all in on the “the ATF should regulate the controversial AR mod so that Diane Feinstein’s bump fire ban bill bombs” line. He blamed the Obama administration for legalizing bump fire stocks, and then got all warm and fuzzy about semi-automatics. . .
The fact is that the Obama administration a couple years ago legalized a device, their A.T.F., that fuzzed the line between semi-automatics and fully automatics. And if we’re able to fuzz that line, all semi-automatics are at risk . . . If you fuzz the line, they’re all at risk. And we’re not going to let that happen.
If I may interject here . . .
In 2010, the ATF made an entirely sensible ruling. They recognized the fact that the bump fire stock contained no moving pieces. It was, therefore, nothing more than a firearm part. Legal for sale.
How, then, were they wrong then, and how, now, are they going to reverse that ruling? And if the NRA says the ATF was wrong and cedes them the power to reverse the decision, what’s the NRA going to do when the ATF regulates some other part of an AR that the Bureau deems too “lethal” for sale?
OK, so, more fuzz . . .
JOHN DICKERSON: Stepping back, is the N.R.A. position that you’re okay with the current restrictions against fully automatic?
WAYNE LAPIERRE: We have supported the existing law on fully automatic firearms. And what we don’t want is we don’t want the line to be fuzzed. Because if you fuzz the line, you’re putting every semiautomatic firearm for years. And I have corrected Diane Feinstein over, and over, and over when she says, “Assault weapons, they’re fully automatic guns.” I said they’re not. But if somebody fuzzes the line, you’re putting every semiautomatic firearm at risk.
JOHN DICKERSON: But to be fair to Senator Feinstein, she didn’t fuzz the line in the conversation we just had.
She, was actually, perhaps because over the years you have come out on the winning end of these arguments, said that this only deals with this one specific bump fire stock. So in this case the line is not being fuzzed.
WAYNE LAPIERRE: Well, I mean, the fact is the bump stock does fuzz the line though. And that’s why A.T.F. needs to do its job. But we really need to get back. I mean, if we’re going to do something, let’s do something meaningful. I mean, the outrage they’re trying to stir against the N.R.A. they ought to be stirring against the mental health system, which has completely collapsed.
Mr. LaPierre also attempted to deflect away from the bump fire imbroglio with the same Hollywood finger-pointing he unleashed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook slaughter.
You want to talk about irresponsible use of firearms?
The number one person teaching irresponsible use of firearms is all these elites’ employer, the Hollywood, television, gaming industry. We spend millions teaching responsible use of firearms. They make billions every single day, John, teaching irresponsible use of firearms. They’re so hypocritical it’s unbelievable.
Yes, well, Hollywood is doing a great deal for the promotion of armed self-defense, and why tell gamers to “get off my lawn”? Videogames are an extremely important, not-to-say mission-critical funnel for new shooters (gun culture 2.0).
Anyway, more than a few members of TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia think the NRA is playing this bumpfire brouhaha perfectly — walking the line between “we need to get rid of this evil device” and “we don’t need no stinking gun control laws.”
As a Second Amendment absolutist, I’m absolutely disgusted that the NRA has emboldened the rotten-to-the-core ATF and conceded on both the NFA in general, and machine guns in particular. You?
Sorry Wayne, you need a new job, maybe lobby for mom’s demand things.
I wonder just how many guns protect her every day
You never win a war (though you may end it) by preemptively surrendering. Simply giving in to the other side emboldens them and makes all of your other positions seem weak. A bump-stock is not an automatic weapon…the same effect can achieved with a rubber band for chrissake! This is a huge strategic mis-step that demoralizes the membership (since it’s obvious that it’s bound to fail) and concedes a large part of the battle field to the enemy. I just don’t think Wayne really knows what he is doing here.
We Can’t and Never will. Evil is and will always be a part of the human existence. Evil exists so that Good can exist. For every Adolf Hitler there is a Mother Teresa. The most we can hope for is to be observant and deal with it before it gets out of hand. Make no mistake Evil will always rear it’s ugly head especially when people refuse to admit it’s existence and call it what it is. ISIS Al Qaeda KKK Anti Fa Socialism Liberalism Communism
The emperor has no clothes.
And, I think he ate his own balls.
well guys I don’t think the cheap shots on her were nice, we need more girls shooting guns to strengthen our side and they are not going to join if we keep taking shots at them. the more people we get shooting the people vote to keep our rights. and I think women especially should get a couple of guns and learn how to protect themselves, and they should also learn so form of hand to hand self defense as well. and I don’t find anything wrong with the way Liberte looks.
WAYNE LAPIERRE: We have supported the existing law on fully automatic firearms.
Pardon my French. Fuck you Wayne.
Not my NRA.
I’ve been a member for 20+ years. Membership dues are due the end of this month. That’s not going to happen now. NAGR has a no compromise stance. I know where my money is going now. We also decided as of last night to remove all NRA info from our shop and will be happy to explain why to all new gun buyers who ask.
When someone spends their entire political career lying to themselves and their constituents the truth will sometimes slip out. It usually happens because after telling so many lies they forget which one they told the last time and their conscience momentarily takes over. Many times the don’t even realize they have done it. Age plays no part in these cases. It’s more a matter of the brain returning to a point where it knows the truth and the actor flubs the line. Politicians are all actors to a point Playing a role to a purpose. Keep Your Powder Dry…
Seems like the Trojan horse the pervious administration planted worked out on divide and conquer over the gun owner’s community.
Being more transparent and open when it comes to treating mental illness. Maybe have a father figure when they are young.
mass shooters always pick a soft targets, or gun free zones. we need to harden all of the targets and stop gun free zones. and have common sense . like and open air concert in that location was not common sense. it was a lack of thinking and also a lack of security. security officers need to be armed. people need to be armed, and get their face OUT of their smart phones. if you go somewhere where there is a large crowd, well you are now part of the target. look for ways in and out and look up. can any one strike at you from any of the sides or from over or under you? is security looking at ALL the directions, are they fully aware of all the ways someone can strike? nowadays we need to be much more aware than we used to. and management at these events have to be up on security and not do a half assed job of it because they only care about the money. in general, people are stupid and they need to smarten up.
Pretty on point when he says return fire or resistance shuts these cowards down.
…Wayne needs to get out of his 1965 time warp and stop listening to the FUDD faction of the NRA….”
There are many factions in the NRA, including pure wood rifle hunters who have no use for EBR types.
How to persuade them to accept other types of shooters has been an issue for a long time.
One cross-over of late has been hog hunters using EBRs and surplus 7.62
How is the bump stock any different than a lightning link?
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/06/03/full-auto-on-the-cheap-how-a-lightning-connector-works/
A lightning link only requires one pull of the trigger to shoot multiple rounds due to how it interferes with the trigger mechanism internally. I believe it doesn’t allow the trigger to reset fully so if you keep your finger on the trigger it will keep chambering and firing a round until you stop squeezing the trigger. They are considered NFA items and subject to the $200 tax stamp just like suppressors and machine guns. Go look up how much a registered lightning link is and you will understand why there aren’t a bunch of them out there. They typically go for $15K or higher. A bump fire stock “simulates” full auto fire but you are still pulling the trigger for each round out of the barrel, albeit very quickly and more quickly.
What i find interesting is that Brady Campaign says DC has a gun ownership rate of 26% and backing that up with peer reviewed studies and the citing per reviewed studies that use that “26%” to make other assertions. So does Everytown.
The Post says there are 6,000 registered owners.
So 26% of adults in DC own guns. DC’s population is 681,000 total, and about 600,000 adults. 26% of that is 156,000.
So the gun control professionals say that DC has 150,000 persons in criminal possession, one in four adults, and 6,000 people who arelaw abiding.
DC is worried about the 6,000 which is the po0l from which carry permits will come — and not worried about the one in four DC residents who are criminally armed????
What kind of place is DC that one in four people is a weapons criminal?
‘common sense’ restrictions on the first amendment, blacking out all names of mass killers (the ‘some asshole’ initiative) and forbidding 24/7/365 news from glorifying these assholes would go a long way to discouraging mass killers who do it for the infamy.
I personally think the NRA is treading lightly (and looking like a swinging door) because so much is on the line with the SHARE ACT. They give in a little so they can win a lot. If they fight every small battle (bump fire) then they may lose the bigger more important battle due to bad press. Too much bad press about guns or parts for guns is bad for the Share Act. It makes those on the left that may be in favor of the Share Act want to change their mind. I think the NRA is playing the long game.
If it was a Destructive Device requiring all the dog pony show, the paperwork and $200 stamp just like a full auto, or any other, Destructive Device, this might not have happened.
If he had to get the 6 week paperwork before anytime he tried to buy one the FEDS might have caught on that he was bat shit crazy and STOPPED HIM.
If he had to go through the Destructive Device papers to get the Bump Fire Device, the feds might have caught on to him and stopped it.
This in turn might have kept a bat shit crazy liberal from harming anyone.
To many bat shit crazy liberals are planing and mass killing people at our expense, and you want to help them.
They wont ban bat shit crazy liberals, too many, but why not make just as hard enough, to slow one or more mass shooters down.
Bull FING sh_t.
The turd passed all of the FBI NICS checks. WTF do you think the ATF uses for 4473 approvals ???
If you had purchased a class 3 dealer file for a DD or full-auto weapon, paid the 200 stamp, waited the ~1.4 x 10 to the 8th power # of bullshit years for the return of a tax stamp, went back to the FFL and took possession of the device. Then immediately called the ATF and told them you were going to go to the local office (or their D.C. offices) and USE THE DEVICE ON THEM, you’d likely be able to get it done before they could even mount a response to stop you.
THEY DON’T PROTECT YOU FROM SH_T. IT’S A FING HONOR SYSTEM ! The only thing keeping you from being harmed by a ‘regulated’ weapon / device / wtf-haveyou IS THE LACK OF AN IMMEDIATE DESIRE, ON THE PART OF THE POSSESSOR, OF WANTING TO DO YOU HARM. That is it.
Where did bump fire stock, trigger cranks and all the rest of the “full auto simulators” come from? The Hughes Amendment!! Before that, if you wanted a full auto, you sent your 200 bucks to the BATF, they sent you an approval, and you got or made your machine gun. This all worked great for decades (1934 to 1986), with almost no criminal use of registered guns. Everything was working great, so Hughes fixed it for us! He drove prices for legal machine guns through the roof (so only the rich get to play), and left hobbyists,tinkerers and working man collectors with no way to get in. This created a market for all the work arounds. So happy instead of the BATF and local law enforcement knowing about who had what, it all went off books. Thanks, Senator Hughes!
The first rule of negotiations is NEVER GIVE UP ANYTHING FOR FREE! Compromise is NOT giving up just a little at a time. It’s getting something you want by giving the least you can…. If they want to get rid of bump stocks, just re-open the NFA registry. This would kill the market for all the work arounds, get the BATF back in the driver’s seat, and drive the prices down so the working man could afford them again.
“The fact is that the Obama administration…”
The fact is that the NRA has been more focused with anti-Obama rhetoric than with anything else. I no longer feel that the NRA is an organization that is strictly focused on the Second Amendment. It supports building roads in national forests so that lazy hunters can drive their trucks within a few yards of their mass-produced tree stands with electric ass warmers. It supports anti-immigration/xenophobic rhetoric and hysteria about terrorists sneaking in from the southern border. I paid for a life membership in my early twenties and wrote quite a few checks to the NRA-ILA. Today I would not do that. It’s an organization that holds too many unofficial positions that I do not wish to promote, and that includes the defense of the Trump administration.
I requested twice that GunBroker.com permanently delete my name, address, phone number, and credit card number. I receive no response. I strongly recommend avoiding this vendor.
“Cut, CUT! For the last time: Canes out front, rack, tap, Pas de bourrée, step and bump, tip-yer-hat! Ready? Five, six, seven, eight…”
The ATFs history with the ‘Adkins device’ shows they sometimes change their minds. but their rulings are odd to say the least.
Not buying it. If they pass legislation that bans modifying devices then we have thrown that 1% to the wolves.
I personally do not want a slide fire stick but I don’t object to anyone owning one.
If this passes and they word it correctly you could potentially be “giving up” your binary triggers, apex triggers, ghost triggers, cmc triggers geissele triggers and so forth because we wanted to deflect a incoming blow.
It’s like your and your girl are at the prom and you decided to let the bully have five minutes with your date in the broom closet but you’ll have the rest of the night.
No compromise.
Raisin’ the bullshit flag on this one.
An obvious strategy option? Yes. Genius? No. Even I could think it up. If I can think it up it is not genius grade.
The NRA has given strength to the BATFE, they have sided with “gun control” politicians and implied that the BATFE should exist. Now Republicans have to side with the “gun control” group, the NRA learderhip and the BATFE for their upcoming elections. We have already seen Republicans calling for more laws/infringements. This puts Trump in a bad position going forward, which is why he is trying to delay the discussion.
Why does anyone need a stock that is used for range entertainment by a few people? Why would a person need a .50 BMG at a public range if they are not taking out vehicles and aircraft? Why do people need impractical drum magazines, belts and extended magazines for fun mag dumps at the range? Why do people have to have flash hiders if they only shoot at targets at the range during the day? Why is it necessary for people to use infrared or thermal devices to shoot at the range?
Most people don’t have or need these things. So why shouldn’t they be banned along with the bump fire stocks? Let’s just have guns with no attachments, require thin barrels for semi automatic long guns and regulate the calibers/rounds for specific purpose use that isn’t combat. Since we are at it, let’s make it illegal to have any pistol that can fire a bullet over the speed of sound.
Come NRA, you have done it before, you can do it again. You can cut off much of the negativity toward your org by being cool with such range toy regulation, as it will keep semi auto guns safe for a little longer. That way the water only rises in temperature slowly; maybe slow enough that your current members will expire before the repeal of the human right of self preservation and private property protection using modern tools. You don’t want your members to have to get off the couch anytime soon (if ever).
Add Johannes Paulsen to the LONG list of people who just can’t seem to comprehend the meaning of “…Shall not be infringed.”
Yet, he writes for a pro (?) 2A firearms blog. Is this Denmark? Because something stinks.
NFA or no?
http://www.recoilweb.com/usa-1shot-non-nfa-butt-stock-for-your-handgun-69131.html
Question for the Author. Can the SpotLite system be spoofed by muffle devices or silencers? Serious question as I don’t know.
The pre incident indicators would have been known to the people close to the shooter, not to the victims of the shooting. If any of them had reported anything this may not have happened. Although he seemed to be pretty antisocial and the investigation is still ongoing just a short list of things from my memory are. Although he did own a few firearms the majority of his weapons were purchased in November (post Trump election?). He was “known” to police. At first I thought that meant that he had a record and was a prohibited person but I guess that was not the case. He made so many large money transfers out of the country that they suspected him of supporting terrorists. People who knew him describe him as bragging about his fathers crimes and saying that he has “bad blood” and is an “evil person”. His family has a history of mental illness. They have located some prostitutes that he used to frequent one of which charges upwards of $6,000.00 that all mention his violent torture and other habits that I wont get into here. His girlfriend said that she was “sent away” just before the event. Of course target practice in the desert, loading the guns into the car, renting the hotel room etc. are all pre incident and led to the outcome
There are many others that I can’t recall now, but that is the thing with pre incident indicators, taken individually they don’t necessarily point to an outcome like this but grouped together after the fact it seems obvious. I would bet that either his girlfriend, a prostitute or someone else had enough info to act but probably chose not to.
Has ANYONE taking a position opposite the NRA even read the approval letter?
The BATF didn’t approve a “bump fire” stock…they approved a device to help shooters with compromised physical abilities continue to enjoy shooting sports.
Of course, everyone with half-a-brain realized what was going to happen…including the BATF…but they approved it anyway within the narrow scope of the question laid before them.
Question: Does ANYONE know of a time such a “device” has been used for the approved purpose? I spend a LOT of time on rifle ranges, seeing hundreds of shooter per month. I’ve not seen a single time such devices have been used for the purpose they were approved…e.g., as an assist to physically impaired shooters.
You can bleat and mewl all you want…but the BATF did not approved a “bump-fire stock”.
Do not be at all surprised when the BATF circles-back and declares them illegal modifications – which is all they can do – then redefines “single function of a trigger” to mean only triggers that fire a single shot each time the trigger is pulled AND released.
We all snickered when they issued the original ruling on slide-fire style stocks. They did the firearms community a favor when they did that. Do not be surprised when that bear whips around and bites us now.
Back off on politics being the center of every news story, improve mental health treatment, stop throwing pills at any mental issue, and start making the family (father included) the center of culture again.
It’s interesting, I’ve talked to my fair share of rental cops they get paid to “monitor and report” in the places I’ve gone (data centers.) I’ve been told by a couple of them that carrying a gun typically puts you in a worse location but doesn’t even pay any more. Seems kind of dumb to me.
That said, the fact we DO NOT have security like he is talking about is a testament to how little violence there really is in the US, and how isolated these incidents are.
You “experts” that bought your 1st firearm last week/last year and who have never bothered to even join the NRA find the history above from 10x25mm. Read it. This war did not start when you graduated from high school. DiFi has been at this since your great grandma was in the backseat with some guy you’ve never heard of.
“…For the price of giving up something that couldn’t be defended anyway, ”
Since when do I have to defend freedom?
The very heart of your statement is completely and totally wrong. You don’t reduce liberties because one person abused those freedoms. You don’t reduce the freedoms of citizens because of the actions of a criminal.
Saying that it’s ok, good even, Is wrong. I don’t have to justify being free, the government has to make the case for limiting that freedom. That is how it is supposed to work.
1. Profiling (re: in the context given…It’s NOT a crime to be a nervous person…Some people have physical health problems. Some people are prone to get panic attacks..Doesn’t make them a prohibited person, a criminal, a nutjob, or a psycho.)
Plan For Total and Complete Disarmament —- U.S. State Dept. Publication # 7277.
N.R.A. ignores such things , you may want to read it.
“The NRA’s Position on Bump Fire Stocks was Genius”
Yeah, Blue-Falcon genius. Not even the jaded NRA haters saw that buddy-Fv<K comin.
It hurts my soul that some gun owners still have the mindset of, “Oh well, if we give The Left this ONE thing- they’ll leave us alone and they won’t take anything else…”
Really, where have you people been over the years? Have you not learned by now? They want EVERYTHING gone! But that’s okay, you can keep yalls head in the dirt until we’re reduced to revolvers and double barreled shotguns in a few short years.
So, a few million dollars over decades donated by fewer than 5 million members of the NRA, in a country of over 300 million people. Doesn’t sound like a very large, powerful, rich or influential “identity group”. So why does the left believe that the NRA has a stranglehold on Congress?
Maybe they can’t come to terms with the obvious. That there are really 100-150 million gun owners who will never give up their guns or their rights, even if they’re not members of the NRA. That immutable fact means the disarmers will never be successful.
It is staggering how many morons never heard of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
The lawyers are willfully ignorant or they know about the law but are milking these idiots for a payout.
Either way they garner no more sympathy from me. It’s these sue-happy morons that make costs so high in America to do business coupled with ambulance-chasing lawyer scumbags.
if this is true the hotel is about to / going to lose its shirt, as well it should. 58 wrongful death lawsuits, hundreds of bodily harm claims, and each and every one can be directly traced to their own written policy. this is priceless
I’m watching this one close. If the PLCA doesn’t apply and this goes through, Ford and GM are in so much trouble.