On October 1, 2017 between 10:05 and 10:15 p.m, Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd at music festival in Las Vegas firing more than 1,100 rounds from his suite in Mandalay Bay hotel, killing 58 people and leaving 851 injured (including over 400 by gunfire). The drums of Gun Control chants went into high gear.
Four month later, on February 14, 2018,former student Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing seventeen students and staff members and injuring seventeen others.
What followed a full-fledged attack on Gun Rights in this country. The Media would not stop blaming gun owners and the NRA. possibly hundreds of millions of dollars were spent in organizing PR events, marches, protest, etc. Media darlings were created as spokespersons for “Gun Safety” who had access to any TV station, to any newspaper and say whatever the wanted to say, truth be damned. The closest our side could get to a fair CNN interview was to pay our cable bill and watch the station at home.
The onslaught of 24/7 lies, misconceptions and personal attacks against Americans gun owners was brutal. Lesser people would have caved (probably some did). We saw many taking the flag of gun control to get a political career and even one instance where an idiot actually committed a federal felony while virtual signaling.
Some states did get one in the chin, Florida possibly being the nastiest with the raising of age to 21 buy any firearm and the ban of bump stocks. I almost forgot the half a billion dollars allocated for “School Security.”
And at a Federal level? Nothing but the stupid bump stocks and people are losing their minds. I posted way back that I thought bump stocks is a stupid hill to die on and my opinion still stands. We could have had a sweeping Assault Ban legislation brought to the floor of Congress and in any other era of the past, we would have seen a vote or at a minimum a full discussion. Instead we can buy online AR 15 for under $400, 30 round magazines under $7 and ammo by the barrel.
But there is a loud group of Gun Owners who think everything was lost, the Second Amendment was derailed because of the ban. They think we should burn the world or at least the White House lawn for a piece of plastic that looks all tactical and makes you go pew-pew-pew-pew very fast without having to pay a federal tax stamp. And what that piece of plastic does, can be replicated by a frigging rubber band costing possibly a couple of pennies. I think it is time we get a grip on reality: It sucks to lose it, but it is a very small price to pay.
But if the bump stock ban is not enough, they throw in that President Trump (The head of the Executive Branch) did not deliver National Reciprocity or The Safe Hearing Act: a couple of bills that are in Congress, what we know as the Legislative Branch. I know I learned US civics late in life, but unless the bills are passed by both the House and the Senate, they do not get signed by the President. At least that is how I was told this stuff worked.
I was told that Trump could have used the bully pulpit and that is where he failed. I will ask you if you called every day to your congresscritter or Senator demanding to have the bills brought to discussion on the floor. Were you a pest? Do the aides know your voice and caller ID by heart? Did you flood their mailboxes with emails and letters?
No.
None of us did. We sat in our asses and like good little entitled morons, we waited for this to happen without our intervention. We wanted stopped working for it and felt we did not have to work for it anymore. And come end of the month, we will collect nothing for our efforts.
Trump did not fail us, we did. Let’s stop whining, let’s man up and begin the fight again in January… yes, even with a Democrat-Controlled Congress. because it seems we do not roll and get serious unless they are trying to shove some bad law up our collective butts.
Well said Sir. We the people need to get friggin serious.
We could have had a sweeping Assault Ban legislation brought to the floor of Congress
It has been filed and will be submitted in January. Along with lots more.
Perhaps it’s just the DC game that they’re going to push all these bills in the Evil Party House, fully expecting the Stupid Party Senate to table them and nothing happens – except they can campaign on having done it.
After all, passing it to let the Senate kill it is just like when the tables were turned and the Stupid Party in the house voted 44 times to kill Obamacare, and let the Harry Reid Senate kill the bill. But when they had the majorities and could do something, they suddenly couldn’t agree that Obamacare needed to go.
The problem is as A March for Our Lives has, its the first ban of many.
The other problem is the way the ban occurred. Its a completely violation of statutory language. Its one thing if Congress banned it. Its entirely a different thing that the BATFE said it was legal, and then suddenly it wasn’t. That’s a dangerous road to go down.
Because the same process can be used to attack other, more popular gun rights.
Plus, gun owners are tired of giving in. We will not comply anymore.
As it is a violation of both existing precedent and statutory language, perhaps the courts will strike it down. I know it’s unlikely, but stranger things have happened.
I always thought “Bump Stocks” were toys for people who had more money than good sense. Nor did I think the “Bump Stock Ban” was the hill to die on. That said, using the ATF to classify bump stocks as machine guns has ramifications far beyond getting rid of these evil accessories. Essentially, with this logic, the ATF can ban or restrict any otherwise legal accessory or firearm that is politically unpopular. Can you imagine the ATF under President Beto, finding justification for treating “Assault Weapons” as readily convertible machine guns? I don’t have any answers, nor am I willing to throw President Trump under the bus, if only because the alternative will be worse. But I am disappointed, and worried.
I’m constantly emailing and calling my congress creatures at both the state and federal levels.
They have stock replies ready to fire off to any gun-rights question or demand.
Which I guess most people don’t know because they don’t call or write.
It takes several interactions with them to actually speak with someone who will take time to talk. But after just a handful of those you get moved to the “it’s HIM again” file and you don’t get to talk to anyone.
OK, but you are ornery anyways 😀
Just as Miguel said, just as all of the rest of the commenters said, all true. My biggest concern is just as Nuke said, if this bit of useless plastic is banned on a seeming whim, what is next? Our laws are not just made by legislative action, precedent plays a large part. With this precedence on the “books” as well as judges seeming to make laws what is the future for our community, our country?
(My apologies in advance for this mini-rant.)
But there is a loud group of Gun Owners who think everything was lost, the Second Amendment was derailed because of the ban. They think we should burn the world or at least the White House lawn for a piece of plastic that looks all tactical and makes you go pew-pew-pew-pew very fast without having to pay a federal tax stamp.
As others have pointed out, the Devil is in the details. In this case, the details are HOW the ban is to be legally implemented.
Disclaimer: I could give two sh!ts about “bump-stock type devices” (BSTDs). In my opinion, they turn money into noise more quickly than I can afford and have no value to the 2nd Amendment’s core purpose of preventing and fighting domestic tyranny. They’re expensive toys, nothing more.
HOWEVER, the new ATF rule declares BSTDs to be “machineguns”, and declares that NFA’34 applies (as well as FOPA’s ban on manufacturing after 1986). Thus, possession of a BSTD will be punishable as if the person possessed an unregistered full-auto rifle.
One problem with this is that “machinegun” is clearly defined in federal law, and a BSTD does not meet that definition. That is precisely why the ATF first declared they were legal not-machineguns.
Another problem is that owners will be required to surrender or destroy their legally-purchased BSTDs – no grandfathering, no provision for ATF to compensate owners – which violates the 5th Amendment’s “takings clause” (the part that says your property cannot be taken without just compensation).
Another problem is that owners are suddenly criminally liable for purchasing a product that was 100% legal at the time it was purchased (again, no grandfathering), which violates “ex post facto” laws. It’d be like declaring marijuana legal, letting people grow/use it for a year, then declaring it illegal again and arresting all the people who grew/used it that year while it was legal.
But the biggest issue is that first one: it arbitrarily redefines Congressionally-passed statutory terms. If that is allowed to stand, it sets a dangerous precedent that a President, by EO, can enforce anything he/she wants by changing the legal definitions to whatever he/she deems fitting.
Want to ban semi-auto rifles but Congress isn’t voting on it? Publish a “rule” declaring them to be “machineguns” and turn the ATF loose on unsuspecting gun owners.
Want to stop retail sales indefinitely? Publish a “rule” declaring that “business days” means something completely different than previously understood, so that the three-business-day background check time limit becomes whatever you want, and publish a “rule” directing the FBI to only run the NICS line one day per month (or year). Then go after retailers who violated your shiny new “rule” at any time during the past 50 years.
Want to make the CDC an anti-gun propaganda machine again? Publish a “rule” declaring “gun violence research” to mean “statistics on choking deaths from ramen noodles”, and suddenly that’s all their funding limitations will apply to. Taxpayer-funded “
gun controlnoodle safety” studies, here we come!The problem with the new rule isn’t the new rule; it’s the precedent it sets if it’s allowed to stand. I won’t say it’s the “End of the Second Amendment!!!!”, but it is EXTREMELY dangerous territory. We opposed Obama’s “pen and phone” style of dictatorial leadership. Why should we do anything different for Trump’s?
(Also, while campaigning Trump promised “no new gun laws” at the NRA meeting. Does this new rule not count because it wasn’t passed by Congress and therefore is not a “new gun law”? Or was he lying?)
I don’t blame Trump for not getting national reciprocity or deregulating suppressors; he can only sign bills that get to his desk, so that fault lies in Congress and to some extent with us for not pushing it. At the same time, if BSTDs can be declared “machineguns” subject to regulation by EO, why can’t suppressors be declared “safety equipment” and similarly deregulated by EO?
[…] anger tbrown at the NRA (which I don’t think is deserved) and a lot at the president (which is). Miguel disagrees with me on that last point. Yes, the Hearing Protection and National Reciprocity are in Congress, but for a president who took […]
You are right we need to continue to be active but I think you are wrong otherwise.
The bump stock ban wasn’t from loosing by legislation it is by a deliberate order to redefine something that doesn’t meet a legal definition by executive fist. It is basically a royal proclemation. With all the 1984 quotes thrown around here this action should be right up there, as a real in the flesh example of newspeak. It IS a machine gun prole.
I think you mistakenly believe we came out ahead by trading something inconsequential to some, bump stocks, for something consequential for everyone, no awb. Well you are wrong, we didn’t trade anything. We lost something and there is no guarantee an awb isn’t going to be tried anyways.