A lot of people aren’t happy about bump stock regulations. I’ll admit it, despite never having an interest in owning a bump stock, I’m one of them. I don’t like giving up ground, especially when it’s an end run around the legislative process like the bump stock ban.

I’m not alone on that either. It seems Gun Owners of America has something to say on the matter, as well it should. From a press release sent yesterday:

Springfield, VA – Gun Owners of America (GOA) sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him not to regulate bump stocks. Tim Macy, chairman of GOA, writes, “These regulations are proposing a radical change — as they effectively define a gun as a machinegun even if the trigger resets for every round that is fired, so long as the finger only pulls the trigger once.” Macy notes how these regulations can be used to ban popular semi-automatic firearms. “So while bump stock devices will now be treated as machineguns under these regulations, these regs also threaten to do the same to AR-15s or other semi-automatic rifles, particularly in the next anti-gun administration,” Macy writes. “I don’t believe that [Trump wants] to ban every semi-automatic rifle in America. But under an anti-gun Democrat administration, they could be on the brink of extinction because of these regulations.” “Gun Owners of America has not and never will accept the premise that Second Amendment rights can be infringed… Rather, the Second Amendment sets forth its own standard of review: ‘shall not be infringed.’ It is clear that bump stocks cannot be regulated under the law, and may not be regulated without infringing the Second Amendment rights of Americans,” Macy concluded. The letter, which can be read in its entirety here, was also sent to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Tim Macy, or another GOA spokesmen, is available for interviews. Gun Owners of America is a nonprofit lobbying organization dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear arms without compromise. GOA represents over 1.5 million members and activists. For more information, visit GOA’s Newsroom.

Even if the regulations in question couldn’t be manipulated into an AR-15 ban, it still creates a dangerous precedent. The definition of a machinegun is explicit; if you pull the trigger one time and get more than one bullet coming out of the business end of the weapon, it’s a machine gun. Period.

A bump stock doesn’t do that. It simply speeds up how fast you can pull the trigger. It obviously falls outside the scope of the law.

But by regulating it in spite of that, the Trump administration has made it that much easier to justify more regulations that inhibit our Second Amendment rights without going through Congress. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see all the ways that can backfire.

Attorney General Sessions needs to take a step back and recognize the slippery slope he’s put this country on with his decree, and he needs to do it in a hurry. If bump stocks are going to be regulated, it needs to go through the halls of Congress and not with a stroke of anyone’s pen.