Writing in The Federalist, Millennial Policy Center Fellow Max McGuire breaks down President Trump’s proposed bump fire stock ban. He explains how a bump stock works - it does not change the mechanics of the rifle in any way, shape, or form, and it does not turn a semi-automatic rifle into a machine gun - and the legal questions surrounding its banning by executive fiat:
“Gun owners know firearm laws. We must. The slightest slip-up can result in serious consequences. This is why gun owners’ eyes roll when firearm ignoramuses talk about gun policy. It doesn’t take long to tell whether a gun control bill was written by someone who understands firearm laws and regulations.
One of the most basic rules that law-abiding gun owners must follow is “don’t turn your gun into a machine gun.” The consequences for breaking this rule are serious.
To help make sure innocent people don’t accidentally become felons, a “machine gun” has a very simple definition: when you pull the trigger, more than one bullet is fired. If you cannot make your gun fire multiple bullets with a single trigger pull, then you don’t have a machine gun.
When I read President Donald Trump’s memo to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, my eyes rolled before I even made it past the memo’s subject line: “Application of the Definition of Machinegun to ‘Bump Fire’ Stocks and Other Similar Devices”
The real eye-rolling really kicked in a little further down the page: “Today, I am directing the Department of Justice to dedicate all available resources to complete the review of the comments received, and, as expeditiously as possible, to propose for notice and comment a rule banning all devices that turn legal weapons into machineguns.”
That is already illegal. It is illegal for anyone without the proper permits and licenses to modify their semi-automatic weapon to fire multiple bullets with a single trigger pull.”
“I own multiple bump stocks. One of them I 3D printed myself, just to prove that modern technology makes banning them pointless. I did not manufacture a machine gun. I manufactured a stock that moves freely along a rifle’s buffer tube.”Max McGuire, Fellow
