Should the ATF reconsider regulating bump stocks? That’s the question the bureau is considering right now, which is something asked for by the National Rifle Association.

Well, they’re thinking about it, and they want feedback from the public. To that end, Gun Owners of America seems to be calling out the troops to try and combat the massive overreach. In an email:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has requested comments from gun owners like you on pending regulations that could ban bump stocks. Gun Owners of America URGENTLY needs you to speak up by the January 25th deadline set by the ATF and help us incinerate this proposal before it even hits the House floor. Please submit your comments to ATF here. >> The proposal to ban bump stocks is nothing but a political game orchestrated by politicians like Nancy Pelosi. Most gun owners don’t even own bump stocks, but Pelosi knows that the second Republicans give her an inch, she’ll take a yard and stab them in the back. This is a dangerous slippery slope that we absolutely cannot cross. This is exactly why Gun Owners of America has officially taken a no-compromise stance. Our Constitution is clear. We have a right to bear arms. Period. Our Founding Fathers were wise enough to know that if we start sacrificing our God-given freedoms for a false sense of security from a nanny-state government, we’ll be left with neither liberty nor security. Every gun owner needs to realize that if the ATF can unilaterally ban bump stocks, THEY CAN BAN ANYTHING THEY WANT. We need to fight back, Michael. Tell the ATF you will not let them strip us of our rights. >> In Liberty, Erich Pratt

Executive Director

Gun Owners of America

Honestly, GOA is absolutely correct. If they’re allowed to regulate bump stocks into illegality, then nothing is off the table. Nothing at all.

The National Firearms Act is rather explicit in what is defined as a machine gun, and that is a weapon that will fire more than one shot when a trigger is pulled.

While bump stocks may simulate fully-automatic fire, there’s nothing in a bump stock that negates the need for a finger to pull a trigger. Nothing at all. Any new regulation that outlaws bump stocks will be nothing more than a regulatory overreach, and the ATF needs to be told that we see it for what it is.

It is possible that the ATF rules won’t change either way. Maybe this is just a step designed to look like the ATF might do something, all while planning on ruling the exact same as they did back in 2010.

Maybe.

But assuming that will be dumb. Never trust the ATF to not expand their own power without a damn good reason, and that reason needs to be an outpouring of opposition to new regulations for a device that has been used thousands of times over the seven years it’s been legal with only one tragic use. While Las Vegas was awful, it’s not a reason to create new rules. Especially when the shooter may well have killed as many, if not more, if he’d committed his atrocity without a bump stock.

Make sure your voice is heard.

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