Bump stock maker Slide Fire to stop taking orders, shutter website

Embattled Texas-based Slide Fire Solutions announced on their website this week that they will no longer accept orders for their products next month and will shut down their website.

The company, the primary manufacturer of bump stock devices in the country, said in a notice that their website will go dark at midnight on May 20, with orders placed prior to that date processed and shipped.

The company, who holds itself as the “sole patent holder of bump fire technology” with numerous patents registered, is a defendant in numerous lawsuits over the use of bump fire stocks at the Route 91 Harvest shooting last October that left 58 dead and some 850 others injured. This came in conjunction with a flood of efforts, both legislative and regulatory, to ban the stocks and a host of other trigger devices at the federal, local and state level.

Since the news broke of the device’s use in the Las Vegas shooting and looming bans, demand has run high, with Slide Fire frequently announcing on their website that they were suspending new orders until they caught up. The company has also removed the list of retailers who stock the devices from their site – a move noted by the Brady Campaign, a gun control organization behind one of the class action suits.

Slide Fire, based in Moran, Texas, has been granted numerous patents for their stocks since 2000 and has defended their niche in the marketplace, forcing competitor Bump Fire Systems out of business two years ago after a lengthy court battle. Approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in 2010 under the Obama administration, the bump fire stock marketed by Slide Fire is pitched to increase firearms accessibility for those with limited mobility among other uses.

The company has often marketed the stocks as a wholly American piece of gun culture.

Under existing law, bump fire stock equipped rifles are NOT machine guns because each and every shot, utilizing a bump-fire stock in the slide fire mode requires a separate activation of the trigger. Period. There are NO modifications to the fire control group. Neither the disconnector, the hammer, the selector lever, lower receiver, or the trigger is altered in ANY way. An automatic sear is not added.

One thing that I really like about Free Republic is the amazing incisiveness and the vast quantity of thoughtful and informed analysis and information about a multiplicity of subjects. However, I am EXTREMELY disappointed about much of what has been said of the the bumpfire stock controversy. Much of it sounds has though it was promulgated by the ignorant gun grabbing left.

I am a 2 tour Vietnam infantry and armor combat veteran, and a member of the Illinois National guard for 26 years. I served in a NG Military police battalion has a platoon sergeant and an operations sergeant. I was a certified Illinois State Police Firearms and Defensive tactics instructor, and a member of Special Reaction and SWAT teams. I have fired hundreds of thousands of rounds through automatic weapons of all types, belt and magazine fed, tripod and shoulder mounted, ranging from .45 caliber M-3 sub machine guns up to M2A1 40 mm twin anti-aircraft guns mounted on an M-42 self propelled anti-aircraft gun.

I am retired and spend one day a month on the rifle range shooting my AR-15 rifles. When this slide fire device was first introduced, the low cost and novelty intrigued me and I purchased one. It was a bit awkward to use at first, but in one afternoon, after a bit of practice I was able to get 90% of any length burst on a man sized target at 70 yards, which is close to the normal engagement ranges for truly effective full auto fire from shoulder mounted assault rifles. It is not as useful has a true selective fire assault rifle since it requires two hands to employ, but it DOES have some measure of limited tactical utility for anyone who practices with it. I never really considered this item to be a true tactical instrument, but I did appreciate the ingenuity and thought that went into turning “bump fire’ into almost as accurate a technique has I could use with a true select fire assault rifle. It was even more accurate when firing from the prone position.

Experts who have decried the effectiveness of full auto fire from assault rifles and other shoulder fired weapons are largely correct. I was constantly yelling at my squad to use the “auto” location for the selector switch sparingly. Semi-auto fire is usually most desired and superior, and includes the advantages of duration of sustained fire to prevent barrel overheating and enhances ammo expenditure and accuracy. Auto fire from an assault rifle has the following tactical utility, in the final and close in (100 meters or less) stages of an assault, to gain initial fire superiority, to break contact, particularly has a counter ambush technique, when firing along final protective lines when a perimeter is in danger of being overrun, and to support by fire the maneuver tactics of another element. Leaders should be responsible to control the fire of their subordinates to maintain fire discipline, but in those roles that I have outlined, full auto fire is very useful indeed, even if it is simulated auto fire delivered from a bumpstock.

The battle has been joined. The anti-gun hysterics are in full cry. They will never be satisfied until they achieve near total firearm confiscation. The genie is out of the bottle. You cannot stop psychopaths employing bump fire methods unless you can repeal the laws of Newtonian physics. I realize that some sort of regulation will ensue in the wake of this horrific atrocity. But I don’t like it one damn bit. BTW, you can effectively bump fire with a thick rubber band wrapped around the magazine well and on the trigger on an AR-15, while firing thru the sights from the shoulder.

If they do enact this ban, then any so called “compromise” should include repealing the 1986 Hughes Act which caused the prices of full auto weapons to skyrocket by making it impossible to register newly manufactured NFA firearms. There is NO REASON for a legally transferable M-16 to cost over 50,000 dollars. You can be assured that any such owner will be thoroughly vetted by the background check that would be required to purchase one. But none of that matters to gun grabbers anyway.

Thanks for the reply. The most limiting factor in using full auto in an assault rifle is NOT mag capacity, but the progressive overheating that can occur within 5-6 magazines fired at the cyclic rate. Remember, The AR-15/M16 family does not have a quick change barrel like a general purpose machine gun, which enables their ability for near continuous auto fire.

The US Army gives the max effective rate of fire semi-auto for the M-16A2 as 45-65 rounds per minute. Even then you shouldn’t fire at that rate for very long, maybe 30 minutes or so if you got a serious fire fight going on. The max sustained rate of fire, semi-auto is 15 rounds per minute, which you can do all day and not shoot the rifling out of the barrel or damage the rifle.

By the way, When my perimeter was overrun in a night assault by the NVA on our night defensive position, I completely shot out the rifling in the barrel of my M-16A1 rifle. It was glowing red yellow. The situation was dire, and I wasn’t too worried about sustained rates of fire. I wound up ditching it to take over the M-60 for a wounded gunner.

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