I was discussing my last post with my wife.  I tried to simplify my argument to her since she is not a gun person and I wanted her to get what I was trying to say.

I’m going to repeat here what I told her:

The NFA was passed largely as a response to the crime of the roaring 20’s.  Controlling machine guns was obvious because of high profile prohibition gangsters.  Silencers was because supposedly poor people would use them for poaching when the economy went to shit*.

The short barrel rifle and shotgun stuff was because back in the day, handguns were still mostly rare and expensive and far less prevalent than they are today in the hands of most people.  The goverment didn’t want poor and working class people to make concealable guns by cutting down grandpappy’s old farm side-by-side and hiding it under a coat.  Several handgun bans were proposed but they never got passed.  The NFA was a way to stop people from making their own handguns out of the long guns they already own.

Since then, and really in the last 20-30 years, there has been so much change in the gun industry that the NFA is pretty much pointless.  

Handguns are far more common now.  There are guns like bullpups and AR pistols that are the same size as short barrel rifles but are legal that have made the SBR irreverent.  

Today a punk who wants to rob a handy holdup is more likely to get a cheap pistol off the street than saw off grandpa’s double barrel.

That leaves us with a conundrum:

The same argument that a pro gun person can make for getting rid of the NFA, i.e., my AR pistol and Tac 14 are functionally equivalent to an SBR and SBS minus some minor feature so might as well get rid of an obsolete law.

Can be mirrored by an anti gun person to argue to strengthen the NFA, i.e., your AR pistol and Tac 14 are functionally equivalent to an SBR and SBS minus some minor feature so we should ban those too. 

See?

It is a matter of who controls that narrative.  

Right now the anti gun left is angry but stupid.  They are focusing on bump stocks for making stuff functionally equivalent (or close to for a layman) to machine guns in terms of rate of fire.

I fear they are going to realize that AR pistols are pretty much SBR’s with some velcro wrapped around the stock and decide those need to be banned too. 

I don’t want to lose anything, but the ban movement is strong right now.  Fuck if the Gunshine state just passed gun control.  If something is going to be lost, who gets to control what gets lost?  I’d rather that be us and damaged minimized. 

I’m not rolling over for gun control because I’m a pussy.

I have put a lot of effort into building a 11.5 inch 5.56, and a 10 and 12.5 inch 300 AAC AR pistol collection, and a have a Tac 14 on order.

I’d like not to give those up or spend the rest of my life in fuck-me-in-the-ass federal prison.

The best way I think I can prevent that is to stop the Left from poking their stupid, ignorant noses into “almost NFA but not quite” guns.

You can say bump stocks are part of “death by a thousand cuts.”

Imagine legislation that gets passed that says “any firearm with a barrel less than 16 inches that is functionally equivalent to short barrel rifle, has a receiver that is functionally equivalent to a rifle receiver, or is equivalent to an AR, AK, etc… (AWB list) is banned.”

That’s not a thousand cuts, that is a broad sword through our hearts.  Your Remington XP-100 or Thompson Encore is now a felony.

Clearer?