DOJ Moves to Classify Bump Stocks as Machine Guns
Ruling would make tens of thousands of overnight felons, despite previous ruling that there is no legal means of regulating the firearm accessories.
Yesterday, AG Jeff Sessions issued the first step toward a new round of gun control through a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) that would classify bumpstock-equipped firearms as NFA-regulated machine guns.
Although it has not yet been published in the Federal Register for the required public comment period (which will, inevitably, be disregarded by the administration), the text of the NPRM is available online. Those interested can discuss the existing and proposed bumpstock legislation on the GunLink forums.
Sessions said, “today the Department of Justice is publishing for public comment a proposed rulemaking that would define ‘machinegun’ to include bump stock-type devices under federal law—effectively banning them. After the senseless attack 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.”
The text of the relevant portions of the NPRM are shown below, from pages 53-55, along with images of those pages.
This NPRM shows a blatant disregard for Second Amendment protections, as well as a fundamental ignorance of how the devices work. Shortly after the NFA rules went into effect, attorneys for the United States argued before the Supreme Court that “The Second Amendment protects only the ownership of military-type weapons appropriate for use in an organized militia,” while (incorrectly) stating that a short-barreled shotgun does not meet that definition.
Further, the mechanism of how bumpstocks work DOES require one manipulation of the the trigger per shot fired. A user cannot simply pull the trigger and achieve continuous fire, as they would with a machine gun. Subsequent shots are achieved by manipulating the trigger with the support hand by pulling the trigger forward into the trigger finger instead of the traditional method of pulling the trigger rearward with the trigger finger.
Once this NPRM is published for public comment, it is important to file your comments to oppose this disturbing piece of legislation.
Relevant portions of the NPRM: Continue reading
Firearms Industry Group Backs Sessions for AG
Firearms industry group National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has released a statement backing President-Elect Donald Trump’s pick for Attorney General.
The trade association for the firearms, ammunition and related industries, today expressed its strong support for the nomination of the U.S. Senator from Alabama as the 84th Attorney General of the United States.
“During the last eight years, through numerous attacks on our Second Amendment liberties, Senator Sessions has worked tirelessly to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens, including through his staunch support of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.” said Lawrence Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel. “We are confident that with Senator Sessions as the top law enforcement officer in the nation that our public will be safer, that criminals will be taken off the streets, that justice will be served, law enforcement priorities will take precedence over politics and the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans will be respected.”
Frankly, we here at GunLink are just excited to see someone other than anti-gun Eric Holder or Loretta Lynch filling the roll, whose duties as the head of the United States Department of justice include being at the helm of the BATFE.
Gun Violence Down. Again.
A new report released this month by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) tells us what we already knew: gun control advocates are full of it. Unfortunately, much of the population is buying what the anti-gunners are selling. According to a recent Pew Research Center Survey, only 12% of Americans believe that gun crime is lower today than it was 20 years ago while nearly 60% believe it is higher.
Some of the highlights noted in the BJS report include:
- Firearm-related homicides declined 39%, from 18,253 in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011.
- Nonfatal firearm crimes declined 69%, from 1.5 million victimizations in 1993 to 467,300 victimizations in 2011.
- About 70% to 80% of firearm homicides and 90% of nonfatal firearm victimizations were committed with a handgun from 1993 to 2011.
- From 1993 to 2010, males, blacks, and persons ages 18 to 24 had the highest rates of firearm homicide.
- In 2007-11, less than 1% of victims in all nonfatal violent crimes reported using a firearm to defend themselves during the incident.
- In 2004, among state prison inmates who possessed a gun at the time of offense, less than 2% bought their firearm at a flea market or gun show and 40% obtained their firearm from an illegal source.
These highlights seem a bit contradictory to the agendas that “mainstream” media and anti-rights zealots are foisting upon the ill-informed. Firearm-related murders are way down, yet “we need gun control now more than ever.” Victimizations involving firearms are way down, but “we need more control over who has firearms.” Most gun crimes involve handguns, but “we need to regulate ‘assault weapons.'” Nearly no firearms used in crimes come from private transfers at gun shows and flea markets, yet “we need to close the ‘gun show loophole.'”
Continue reading
