Even Sun Tzu recognized there is such a thing as indefensible ground. Let us not forget what bill had been introduced and which I’m told had the votes to pass if something wasn’t done to take the wind out of its sails.
Let me reiterate something: Read the bill that was hanging over our heads and then make an informed decision.
The old folks will remember the horror stories of ATF designating shoestrings as machineguns, rubber gaskets for hose connections as unregulated silencer baffles, etc.
This law would have made the simple presence of a rubber band near your rifle a felony.
Same would have applied for lighter recoil springs or after market trigger groups. And even lighter bolts, titanium pins and whatever other internals the ATF decides accelerates the rate of fire.
We missed a huge shell aimed at our heads and lost a lawn chair in the process. Time to be adults.
Except we actually got Feinstein’s verbiage here at the state level, making what ATF did (and whether it was legal to do it) moot in Florida.
get rid of all rubber bands
That isn’t the problem that I have What concerns me here is the blueprint for gun laws that Trump’s action created. What will prevent the next President from changing the definition of “readily convertible” to include all semi autos?
There is a process for making laws, and this was not it.
“Let us not forget what bill had been introduced and which I’m told had the votes to pass if something wasn’t done to take the wind out of its sails.”
How would that have worked, exactly? I keep asking and no one can seem to tell me how:
1. it would have been possible that Paul Ryan would have brought it to a floor vote in the House after miraculously passing all the committee votes
2. it would have been possible that Mitch McConnell would have brought it to a floor vote in the Senate after miraculously passing all the committee votes
3a. Trump would have signed it. (The most likely thing in the entire scenario to happen, given his contemporaneous statements)
or
3b. 2/3 of both chambers would have overridden the veto.
I keep asking, and people keep brushing it off like its a stupid question, akin to “Why do you think the earth is round” or “Why do you think the sky is blue?”
“Trust me” or “Republicans are stupid” are not valid answers to the question. Mitch McConnell would NEVER allow such a thing to come to a vote.
Of course, the related question is: If the NRA, while the GOP controlled the entire federal government, couldn’t stop a gun ban—what is it that they do here? This is also a serious question that gets completely dismissed.
Nothing personal, only political.
You are trusting that that Ryan & McConnell were going to do –precisely– what you were trusting them to do.
The only trust to impute to a politician is that they will do what is in their best interest after licking their finger and sticking in the wind to see which way it’s blowing right now
And again, the only response I seem to get is a non-answer.
It’s baffling.
I believe that the senior Senator from Kentucky would have a hard time being re-elected if he’d been the reason for AWB 2.0.
Why do people think otherwise? I’m genuinely curious, especially because this belief seems to be so widespread.
I really hate the insults around bump stocks. Because it seems like Miguel, Sebastian, and their ilk continue to ignore the danger the bump stock rule poses.
Its not a two sided debate. Its a nuanced debate. I have no problem with the NRA wanting to avoid a bad bill. But that doesn’t mean they should also support a bad regulation. Having the BATFE do a review of the law to take the wind out of the sails of the bump stock ban bill is great. That’s perfect tactical menuvering.
But once the regulation was promulgating, having no opinion on it was not. Beside the loss of property, there is the loss of money all these people experienced. But the big issue is the way the regulation is written allows a future hostile administration to designate any firearm that can take MG parts as an MG. BOOM instance scary looking gun bad.
They should have opposed the regulation, and if a law then was going to be passed, worked with Congress on a very narrowly tailored bill. Not that I think it was likely to pass, as wizardpc adeptly points out with his questions.
So please stop insulting us who understand the massive danger the regulation provides, even if many of us don’t really care about bump stocks.
The problem with the Bump Stock Cadre is they think there was no prior ATF regulation for devices that accelerated/simulated fast/automatic fire and that is not true. IIRC, Bump Fire stocks went through the ATF’s “nope, not good” to “OK, maybe good.”
AK parts kit were originally good with the barrel till one day ATF said “Fuck it, you can’t sell barrel with kit.”
The issue is not the bump stock but the extreme flexibility ATF has to play with regulations without any guidance from Congress.
And still, the stupid regulation was better than the incoming law we had in Congress. It was pitting ATF against Feinstein that you are not getting rid of your expensive Volquartsten triggers kits and back to factory standards.
“Volquartsten triggers kits and back to factory standards”
Yet.
The original bump fire stocks and the accelorator stocks we no go because of spring assistance if I understand and/or recall correctly.
The fact that determination letters are binding specifically only to who it is sent to is horseshit. The fact that something can be ok at first then magically not by reinterpretation real hard of the same laws is horseshit. The fact that a ban by beuracrstic fiat can be issued is horseshit. The fact that the mere presence of a third hole makes a machine gun is horseshit. The list goes on. The entire agency has far too much leeway and needs to be reigned in and that is even taking into consideration some of the bro teir things they have been doing lately at an individual level. This is something that should have been legislated.
The best ally ATF ever had was one Usama Bin Laden. The agency was on its way to be split and Firearms branch absorbed by the FBI when 9/11 happened.
I think similar can be said of many agencies unfrotunately.