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?