Posted on 10/17/2017 8:12:06 AM PDT by PROCON
A Slide Fire bump stock in action. (Photo: Slide Fire/Facebook)
The association representing current and former ATF employees has pushed back against critics blaming the agency for approving bump stocks.
The ATF Association said the agency “does not have the legal authority to regulate” bump stocks, which allow semi-auto rifles to mimic full-auto fire.
“The bump slide, and several other similar after-market accessories that increase the rate at which a shooter can pull the trigger, are engineered to avoid regulation under Federal law,” said Michael Bouchard, ATFA president, in an open letter last week.
“The notion that ATF chose not to regulate an item it had the authority to regulate is false. The law is very clear and it does not currently allow ATF to regulate such accessories,” Bouchard added.
The federal laws that regulates machine guns — the National Firearms Act and the Gun Control Act — define a machine gun as “as any combination of parts designed and intended for use in converting a weapon to shoot automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger,” Bouchard said.
Bochard’s letter was addressed to Congressman Carlos Curbelo, a Republican representing Florida, whose proposal to ban bump stocks has gained bipartisan support. Curbelo said his legislation will “ban devices that blatantly circumvent already existing law.”
(Excerpt) Read more at guns.com ...
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Wimps.
Not being authorized by law didn't stop the EPA when they wanted to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.
/S
Atf spokesman followed the law.
EPA purposely violated the law.
Exactly my point.
The government regulators are just as likely to usurp the powers of the legislature and the States whenever it suits them.
And then more often than not the courts will support the regulator in their usurpations.
The EPA had no power to regulate CO2 as a pollutant and yet the courts backed their power grab.
It is only the luck of the draw of judges that is a determination on whether regulation will be imposed on the people or be held off for a few years.
The Congress is pretty much a jobs program for people too ugly for Hollywood. It serves little purpose any longer.
Congress is expensive entertainment for those of us that still live under the illusion that we are still a republic and still free.
The NRA isn’t wanting it regulated to appease the anti-gunners so much as a bargaining chip to get national reciprocity and/or the Hearing Protection Act approved.
The NRA isn’t wanting it regulated to appease the anti-gunners so much as a bargaining chip to get national reciprocity and/or the Hearing Protection Act approved.
On this one issue, the BATFE followed the law to the letter. As mentioned, bump-fire stocks were purposely engineered to fall on this side of the 1934 NFA.
Those complaining about it make as much sense as those who complain about a driver going 69 MPH in a 70 MPH zone - they are complaining about those who OBEY THE LAW.
As for the NRA, they have neither the guts nor the sense to be on the right side of this issue. It isn’t about bump-fire stocks - it is about whether an inanimate object causes crime. I thought that this had been settled when the NRA actually did the right thing by stopping the renewal of Clinton’s AWB. Next, after bump-fire stocks are gone (or regulated under the NFA), the gun-grabbers WILL be coming after normal-capacity magazines and semi-autos...so we’ll be right back where we were in 1994-2004.
Our only hope is that the Dems/gun-grabbers over-reach. They appear to be starting the process, by tacking on a 3-day waiting period for handguns (which played exactly no role in the Las Vegas massacre, except possibly to shoot the purported perp (and he acquired that particular gun well before a 3-day waiting period would have stopped him from using it there).
Be that as it may, the NRA is still willing to give up something it’s members want them to fight for.
Spot on!
“The Congress is pretty much a jobs program for people too ugly for Hollywood.”
Too ugly for radio.
“Be that as it may, the NRA is still willing to give up something it’s members want them to fight for’
The NRA doesn’t want them regulated. As a ploy/delaying tactic hey simply suggested ATF review the matter knowing full well they would come to the same conclusion.This buys time while the whole thing loses steam...and it is. Brilliant.
And the way the current bills are written makes they totally unacceptable.
The NRA may have punted when they asked the ATFE to review the products- NRA knows the law- and they know the technology does not violate it.
Basically they said something that the left would smile about and say “aha!”, and knowing folks would laugh at the left for smiling ....
For the AFTE to regulate the technology, the law would have to be changed- and that falls on congress. Good luck getting anything good or bad I suppose.
Unless NRA has said something more, I agree with them on this. Make the Govt say or do something if it wants- voters are indeed listening, and I think more so now than in a long tome, elected officials are listening too.
All laws regulating firearms are unconstitutional.
1) Repeal of 18 USC 922 (o) so we can become the premier firearm innovator and manufacturer in the world...not in Dusseldorf or Belgium.
2) NFA amnesty immediately until Trump or next POTUS closes the amnesty. This will allow us to get the Registry at ATF correct (and allow us to Form 1 or 2 LOTS of NFA items)....plus veterans amnesty for bring backs.
3) Increase NFA tax to $1000.00 instead of 200, but you have to removed SBS, AOW, SBR, and suppressors. You Democrats LOVE raising taxes, right?
4) and THEN, and only then we'll register our bump stocks as an AOW.
.....but not before a repeal of Chapter 4 of the GCA....and eventually the NFA of 34, and entire GCA, FOPA 86 laws. They ARE unconstitutional.
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