Dianne Feinstein: Don't celebrate the Trump administration's bump stock ban too quickly

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Dianne Feinstein: Don’t celebrate the Trump administration’s bump stock ban too quickly

By Dianne Feinstein December 19 at 7:55 PM

Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, represents California in the U.S. Senate.

The Justice Department issued a regulation Tuesday banning bump-fire stocks, devices that can essentially transform semiautomatic weapons, such as an AR-15, into automatic rifles that fire at a rate of between 400 and 800 rounds per minute. These devices can inflict absolute carnage, as they did in October 2017, when a gunman killed 58 people at a concert in Las Vegas.

Support for banning bump stocks is widespread, and it’s encouraging to see the Trump administration take action on gun safety.

But let’s not celebrate too quickly. Presidents can rescind regulations just as easily as they create them, and in this case, the bump stock ban will likely be tied up in court for years. Only hours after the Trump administration released its final regulation, Gun Owners of America announced it would file a lawsuit.

To ensure a ban is implemented and protected from legal challenges, Congress must still pass a law banning bump stocks and other similar devices, such as trigger cranks.

The sale and manufacture of automatic weapons have been illegal since the National Firearms Act was updated in 1986. The law — even though it eased restrictions on most guns by allowing interstate sales of long guns and removing requirements to record ammunition sales — made clear that civilians should not have such weapons.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/20/dianne-feinstein-dont-celebrate-trump-administrations-bump-stock-ban-too-quickly/

[better]

1. A couple of things that should be added to this discussion...

First, the NFA does not prohibit the sale or ownership of automatic weapons, exactly. Rather, it prohibits the civilian sale or ownership of automatic weapons manufactured after 1986. This is important to understand because it means that civilian sale and ownership of automatic weapons remains lawful, with the appropriate license and registration, the process for which is very strict and does include a mandatory background check. I'm not making any assertions about whether or not that should change, but that is the current reality, and I do think we should correctly understand it.

And second, the most likely grounds on which the ban on bump fire stocks might be successfully challenged, I believe, has to do with confiscation without compensation. That's something we should be prepared to deal with if and when Democratic lawmakers do move forward with Congressional legislation. They may need to also provide funding for compensation to overcome that potential challenge.

Personally, I am in favor of protecting the rights of gun ownership, but I am also in favor of sensible gun control. Banning bump stocks, and importantly also banning any other device that achieves the same effect such as trigger cranks, falls very squarely into the category of sensible gun control, but it is important that we remember that even that will still leave the issue of rapid fire somewhat inadequately addressed, simply because it is possible to bump fire a semi-automatic weapon without any modification whatsoever.

What this regulation of bump stocks does correctly, from my perspective as a gun owner, is that it very narrowly targets a single characteristic that truly does matter. I can make reasonable arguments against banning pistol grips or telescoping stocks, but I can make none whatsoever against banning devices that increase rate of fire. So I do in fact want to see Congress do this and do it correctly so that it can withstand challenges in the courts.

But alongside the effort to ban devices that increase rate of fire, I still strongly believe that we also need a renewed ban on high-capacity magazines, with mandatory surrender or destruction. And of course any funding mechanism that may be required to allow such a ban to stand. This is related to the rate of fire issue because even though it remains possible to bump fire a weapon without modification, the utility of doing so is inversely proportional to the capacity of the weapon, because the faster the weapon fires, the more quickly one needs to reload.

The proper course of action, in my opinion, is to focus legislation on rate of fire and capacity, because those things do inarguably have legitimate bearing upon public safety. This would help avoid resistance on the grounds of banning irrelevant features, such as we saw with the AWB of the past. There are of course some gun humpers who will still object, but far fewer than the number who would object to regulation that also bans characteristics that do not actually have any bearing upon public safety.

[PBC_Democrat]

2. The Senator is correct ... but for the wrong reason(s)

Very simply - neither the ATF nor the DOJ have the authority to reinterpret the law. The law covering Machine Guns is VERY explicit and can only be changed by legislation - congress - not by an unelected bureaucrat and a pen. As the existing law reads defining what a Machine Gun is, these do not fall under such.

Another issue is there is no grandfather clause - it simply demands that all bumpstock owners surrender or destroy them. Devices that for over a decade the ATF THEMSELVES wrote on MULTIPLE OCCASIONS to both owners and manufacturers that such were legal and furthermore testified they did not have the authority to change that. No compensation is being offered. This is just the government coming in and saying - give us your property or destroy it. This is in violation of the 5th Amendment - “private property [shall not] be taken for public use, without just compensation."

This also violates the 14th Amendment, namely Due Process under the law. Bump Stock owners have received no due process. Just a demand for compliance and obedience. That is not acceptable.

This is going to be a short-lived moral victory for gun control advocates.

The other frequently overlooked issue that a 'bumpstock' device can be emulated using a couple of rubber bands or a belt or created with things lying around the house.

I understand the outrage after the Vegas shooting but this is a useless ban sought by people that really don't understand what they're talking about.

At some point we have to get past emotion and start evaluating facts.