Senate skirting the law by letting the ATF create regulation?
History Lesson
Most of you guys who know about the ATF and the state of gun regulations in that they can approve or deny products only within the realm of what is dictated in federal law. The best example of this is the lines in the '68 gun control act that prohibited importation of firearms unless the particular weapon:
This gave the ATF the ability to permit or prohibit the importation of weapons that aren't of suitable "sporting purpose"; whatever the ATF decides that means.
Current Day
The current case we are in is different entirely. The current bureaucratic posturing is that the senate is asking the ATF to go back and retroactively deny a class of products the lawful ability to be sold. These are called "rate increasing devices". Products like binary triggers, trigger cranks, and bump stocks. The argument for why this should happen is because tools that make it easier to fire a semiautomatic rifle (defined under 26 U.S.C. 5845(c)) at a greater rate. Even though these devices do not convert a semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun by the word of the law, Washington career politicians and the National Rifle Assocation are asking for these devices to be reviewed on the grounds that they violate the spirit of the law. These are the same grounds under which the m855 ammo ban was sought was defeated.
(A "bump stock" style stock made by Slidefire)
Why this is flawed
Extracting guns from the equation, the issue becomes immediately apparent: who gets to decide what the "spirit of the law" even is? One day it could be regulation, then registration, then confiscation and there is no way the democratic system can control it. Essentially it could come down to a rouge ATF chairman or a future executive order.
Reintroducing guns to the situation, the 2nd amendment states clearly that:
and the definition of infringe is quite clear on this. 2A aside, who gets to decide what a rate increasing device even is? If it's merely a thing that makes it go bang faster, why not ban a custom trigger with a lighter pull? If you can bumpfire with a stick or a finger through your belt loop, why would the ATF not ban sticks and beltloops or fingers? See the problem here? If these devices violate the spirit of the law and a semiauto can shoot as fast as you pull the trigger, they too are in violation of the spirit of the law.
What can be done
Rick Vasquez (the former head of the ATF's firearms technology devision) talked about this on a stream with Military Arms Channel. Watch it here:
The ATF has opened up comments on this issue to the general public. Comment and I would recommend the comment drafted by Gun Owners of America here. The voice from up on high will come down with a decision during Shotshow this year so there is still a little time. Get commenting!
