After the horrific tragedy in Las Vegas earlier this week, the gun control movement has identified a new target of their ire: bumpfire stocks.

Ever since videos emerged showing fast automatic fire coming from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, pundits have hypothesized how the shooter was able to fire so quickly. We now know that he used a bumpfire stock to simulate fully automatic fire. Since that information was leaked, news anchors and contributors alike have accused companies like Slide Fire of helping people create illegal machine guns.

As calls for a ban on these rifle stocks get louder, even the National Rifle Association (NRA) has offered these devices up as a sacrifice of sorts, hoping that by doing so, they can avoid having to fight back against any significant gun control legislation. However, this new push to ban bumpfire stocks is dangerous, not only to their owners, but also to hunters, sportsmen, and defensive firearm owners alike.

First of all, let’s explain what a bumpfire stock is not. These devices do not turn semi-automatic rifles into machine guns and they are not illegal under Federal law to own or use. For a firearm to be legally classified as fully automatic, a single trigger pull must result in two or more bullets being fired. A semi-automatic rifle is designed to only allow one bullet to be fired for each trigger pull.

A semi-automatic rifle like an AR-15 technically has the ability to fire as fast as its full-auto counterpart, the M4; however, a shooter still needs to pull the trigger before every bullet is fired. Basically, semi-automatic rifles can fire as fast as a shooter can pull the trigger. Most people don’t have the dexterity necessary to sustain semi-automatic fire at speeds of a fully automatic weapon. World Record Speed Shooter Jerry Miculek, however, has shown he can fire an entire 30-round magazine from an AK-style rifle in just under 5 seconds with nothing but his well-trained trigger finger.

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Bumpfire stocks function by harnessing the recoil of a semi-automatic rifle to allow a shooter to actuate the trigger faster than he or she could with their trigger finger alone. A bumpfire stock works by taking your finger muscles out of the equation entirely. When a shooter presses forward on the rifle’s handguard, that forces a stiff trigger finger to actuate the trigger. When the rifle is fired, the stock harnesses the recoil of the shot to move the gun backwards, resetting the trigger. When strung together, the result is burst fire.

When someone says that civilians shouldn’t be allowed to own a bumpfire stock, what they are really saying is that civilians shouldn’t be allowed to pull the trigger quickly. On the long list of foolish things that gun control advocates believe they can truly legislate, regulating how fast someone is allowed to pull the trigger is probably the least enforceable.

Any attempts to regulate bump firing is essentially an attack on the laws of physics themselves. People have been bump firing rifles for years using nothing more than their thumb and their belt loop. So, if the real goal is to stop people from quickly firing their rifles, are we going to have to ban speed shooter Jerry Miculek and belt loops as well?

The fact of the matter is that this bumpfire ban is nothing more than a veiled assault on semi-automatic weapons. This is an assault weapon ban hidden behind an accessory that most Americans had never heard of a week ago. If the goal is to truly stop someone from firing a weapon at speeds mimicking a fully-automatic weapon, then it is not hard to see how this slippery slope eventually ends with a semi-automatic weapon ban.

Of course, a semi-automatic weapon ban is the ultimate goal here. Bumpfire stocks don’t change a semi-automatic weapon’s firing mechanism, they simply allow a semi-automatic rifle to fire faster than the average trigger finger alone is capable.

California Senator Diane Feinstein, a longtime gun control advocate who once admitted her gun control dream was to make Americans “turn them all in,” has introduced a bill to ban bumpfire stocks - but she doesn’t stop there. The proposed legislation’s language would ban civilians from owning “a trigger crank, a bump-fire device, or any part, combination of parts, component, device, attachment, or accessory that is designed or functions to accelerate the rate of fire of a semi-automatic rifle but not convert the semi automatic rifle into a machine gun.” (emphasis added)

Feinstein doesn’t just want to ban bumpfire stocks, but also any accessory that helps a shooter fire a rifle faster. That would make it a felony to install a competition trigger or even replace worn-out springs. Practically any aftermarket rifle accessory could be argued to help someone fire a rifle faster and under her proposed legislation, there is no grandfather clause. That means if you own a bumpfire stock or any other speed-enhancing accessory, you would have 180 days to surrender or destroy it if her bill were to pass.

Eventually, another tragedy will inevitably strike this country and the shooter, though not in possession of a bumpfire stock, will fire his or her rifle just as quickly. Then, instead of targeting obscure accessories that most Americans have never heard of, gun control advocates will once again blame the semi-automatic action itself.

It hasn’t even been a week since the tragic Las Vegas shooting and we are already seeing that if you give gun control advocates an inch, they will always try to take a mile. And when they do go for that mile, there is no guarantee that there will be a Congressional Majority or president who is willing to stop them.