By: Michael Boldin
When the ATF published the final rule banning bump stocks in Dec. 2018, estimates showed there were as many as 500,000 in existence. Now, after a freedom of information act filed by the Washington Times, we have the first details of how many have been turned in to the feds. And it doesn’t look good for the government, either. Is this the beginning of a widespread nullification effort? Only time will tell.
James Madison told us just how to deal with unconstitutional federal programs – and the first report on “compliance” with the unconstitutional federal bump stock ban suggests people just might be following his advice in wide numbers.
Here’s the backstory.
During the Obama years, the gun-grabbers in his administration looked at creative ways to use unilateral executive power to ban these devices. But even they felt they couldn’t twist existing law this far without running into some serious issues.
“The stock has no automatically functioning mechanical parts or springs and performs no automatic mechanical function when installed,” the Obama administration’s ATF technology chief wrote. “Accordingly, we find that the ‘bump-stock’ is a firearm part and is not regulated as a firearm under Gun Control Act or the National Firearms Act.”
Not to be deterred, the gun-grabbers in the Trump administration pushed forward anyway. And in Dec. 2018, they redefined this firearm part that many serious gun-rights enthusiasts don’t even consider in their collection – as a “machine gun” so it could be banned under existing “law,” the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Setting aside the fact that neither of these acts should even exist under the Constitution, this is an incredibly dangerous ramp-up of precedent that Obama himself tried to use when his administration tried to define M855 ammunition as “armor piercing” in order to implement a national ban.
The end result? Just around Christmas in 2018, the Trump administration published their final rule in the federal register, giving people 90 days to destroy or “surrender” their bump stocks.
What a horrible Christmas present for the people – more unconstitutional gun control from the federal government.
This week, thanks to the publication of a Freedom of Information Act Request from the Washington Times, we know the initial results of that demand from the feds, and the numbers actually look like a bit of good news.
Out of as many as 500,000 bump stock devices in circulation, less than 600 were turned in to the ATF. And while that doesn’t represent the final, total numbers, I consider this extremely good news.
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