Posted on 03/11/2018 3:55:19 PM PDT by Lazamataz
NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY could ever call me a Never Trumper. In fact, I was perhaps one of the very first Trump supporters on this forum.
However, by using his Executive Order to ban bump-stocks as machine guns -- despite the fact that they STILL PULL ONE TRIGGER FOR ONE ROUND BEING FIRED -- he has just done something in an extra-judicial manner.
Despite the clear language of the law that defines automatic weapons -- that one trigger pull discharges multiple rounds continuously -- his EO causes the language to be ignored.
Now, I get that Trump bashed the NRA, then met with them the next day. I get that. That’s chicken feed for the liberals and RINOs.
BUT
Trump banned bump stocks pretty much by Executive Order.
DO YOU REALIZE WHAT THAT MEANS?
It means the first Democrat who gets elected will ban ALL SEMIAUTOS by Executive Order. All they have to do, with this precedent, is show someone firing a semi-auto in a bump-fire method using a pants belt-loop. Voila: It's a full-auto. Therefore, it can be EO'd away.
The right thing to have done was to encourage / demand the House give him a bump stock ban bill. Then get it through the Senate. Then sign it.
But by doing what he just did, he made it possible for Dems to EO firearms away.
The Second Amendment is my biggest deal.
That looks like it has spores!
Not as far as I can tell.
The NRA and BATFE have both supported banning these bump stocks in the past. They are designed—unlike a rubber band or belt loop—to make a semi-auto rifle fire at full-auto rate. Period. I make note of this to illustrate that the idea of a bump stock ban is hardly extreme.
Functionally, a bump stock isn't much different than an auto sear—which as you know is regulated under the NFA. I understand completely that the mechanical functionality is radically different, but the net effect is the same. Therein lies the problem.
Now, it's a fact that rubber bands and belt loops can't be banned. But under the expansive view of "contraband law"' which most people submit to—especially "conservatives" such as yourself, I might venture—this sort of reasoning is no different than bureaucratically (not legislatively) declaring anything else contraband in the name of public safety, like a plant or liquid spirits or medicine or a chemical. It the sort of mundane, run-of-the-mill Tyranny that countless foolish Americans are happy to tolerate as long is it's not their ox being gored. Thus we end up with the "least common denominator" of freedom in many cases.
So welcome to the world of modern authoritarian thought. Unfortunately, President Trump falls into this category, as do most Democrats and Republicans I know. This is the kind of crap you get when you're willing to make compromises on actual Freedom—as long as it suits your bias—and many Americans do, including many right in this community.
Personally, I utterly reject such Tyrannical Law, and the phony, unconstitutional horse it rode in on. But I'm apparently in a distinct minority.
We'll see about Constitutional challenges to this law EO.
I'm absolutely certain that a semi-auto ban—done by EO—would not pass Constitutional muster. It may be that a bump stock ban might not either.
Having said that, I firmly believe that the President—whom I generally support enthusiastically—has made an egregious error here. Hopefully, this EO will be struck down.
IMHO, President Donald J. Trump has a regrettable tendency to sidestep Constitutional principles in the name of expediency. This is one of his greatest weaknesses, and also the biggest threat to his long-term viability. He'd better watch his authoritarian ass or he's going to see his base of support disappear like dust in the wind...
It's not going to have any consequence to 99% of gun owners. There are tons of more important things, even to the one per cent that want to buy bump stocks, yes?
The problem is that the law is not supposed to be about technicalities, but about substantive issues. The substantive issue here is not the definition of what constitutes and automatic weapon, but whether bump stocks are a cute and clever ruse to get around the ban while providing substantively the same capability. The fact is that they do. That your trigger finger is merely used as a mechanical pin in the automatic firing chain does not change the substantive fact that the fire is automatic. It is not as though the shooter's mind intermediates between every trigger pull, and in fact the whole point of the bump stock is to get the shooters mind out of the chain.
Despite the fact that the Obama administration approved the sale of bump fire stocks on at least two occasions, the National Rifle Association is calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) to immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law. The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.
https://home.nra.org/joint-statement
If the RATs get power back, they will ban all guns, not just bump stocks.
Including my shotgun and pistol.
I'll leave the technical discussion for another day; just allow me to say I disagree, because of the mechanics of an auto-sear versus a bump-stock. However, the paragraph I quoted is pure brilliance. Most business people do not worry too much about morality, and barely ever have to worry about Constitutionality. He's a businessman. However, now, as President, Constitutionality should be his primary focus -- not expediency.
It's worse than that my brother from another mother: All a Democrat President will "need" to do is talk about how any firearm can be rapidly fired in a manner that sends any number of bullets downrange in a manner of seconds. ANY handgun can do that and it doesn't take a whole lot of skill to do it.
You and I have shot together. I know that's going to come as a shock to many Freepers that you and I actually know each other, have shot together and broken bread together however that's absolutely true. You and I also know it's not difficult at all to send five bullets downrange in oh, say five seconds. Any semi-automatic handgun can do that.
A Democrat President will point to a fact similar to the above and say "now, no one needs to send five bullets downrange in five seconds, so I'm going to issue an EO making weapons with such capability illegal."
Voila - we have full "handgun control" which makes every single handgun owned by a private citizen illegal.
The Democrats won't stop there either. They'll say no weapon that can accurately send a bullet downrange for oh, say one-hundred yards is really "needed" either, so those will be banned.
It just gets worse and worse from here and what PDJT has done my friend. Banning bump-stocks sets the stage to ban ALL semi-automatic weapons, no matter what the frame/format of them from rifle to handgun.
The stage has been set.
I just got my letter from the Grestapo here in MA telling me I have too turn in any bumpstock mechanism.
I didn’t even know what a bumpstock was until Las Vegas.
This needs to be challenged up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court still has 4.5 drooling idiots on it but America will just have to take the chance.
I have supported Trump since some point in the primaries and believe that he should be held accountable for what he does and how he does it as a way of helping him to do the best job possible for the country.
When belt-loops are banned, only criminals will have them.
Also, when belt-loops are banned won't we all have sagging pants like the inner-city gang banging thugs and then how will the police tell the difference between the good guys (pants up) vs. the bad guys (sagging pants?)
He has a pen, and a phone . . .
I bet a case of Omaha steaks choice fillets half way through the first debate he was our next president. I can’t remember the first post or comment I got ripped for supporting him was but I’m sure it was before the first debate. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out this was a small part of a bigger plan that will make sense someday soon but I’m having a hard time imagining how. I also wish we could mend the rift with the diehard Cruz supporters.
Bears repeating!
“Nullification” is a very BROAD interpretation and the Constitution is the law God given as written in my eyes. This government is not and never will be my god or master. The President NEVER has the power to usurp the Constitution nor do the other branches of tyrannical overlords but they do. There is an answer to this and as they say, “History repeats itself” and those “Good men who do nothing” shall do something the further we are provoked.
Interesting tactic. They don’t know you have one, obviously you don’t — but why did they select you? 4473 records? Are you a CCW holder?
They probably blanketed anyone they knew who were involved with firearms, and then the ones who actually have a bump stock were all intimidated — “OMG, they KNOW!”
Neat trick.
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