The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAMMI) released this joint statement Monday in the wake of the tragic attack in Las Vegas a week ago Sunday:
Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families and loved ones of all those killed and injured in the criminal attack in Las Vegas. The manufacture, distribution and sale of automatic firearms and their components has been stringently regulated by federal laws since 1934. We believe the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) should interpret and enforce existing laws and regulations. We call upon ATF to conduct a prompt review and evaluation of aftermarket trigger activation devices such as bump stocks to determine whether they are lawful to install and use on a firearm under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA), or whether, if they have no function or purpose other than to convert a conventional firearm into an automatic firearm, they are regulated items under the NFA. We urge Congress to allow ATF to complete its review before considering any legislation so that any policy decisions can be informed by the facts and ATF’s analysis.
It appears the NSSF and SAMMI are following in the footsteps of the NRA, which also called for the ATF to review bump stocks to determine whether they should be subject to additional regulations.
The ATF has already reviewed bump stocks twice, once in June of 2010 and then again in 2012. On both occasions, the agency found that it was not a firearm and therefore not regulated by law, as PolitiFact noted.
“The stock has no automatically functioning mechanical parts or springs and performs no automatic mechanical function when installed,” ATF’s technology chief John Spencer wrote in a letter addressed to Slide Fire Solutions in 2010.
“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,” Spencer concluded.
A letter with similar language was sent to Bump Fire Systems, a Slide Fire competitor that stopped selling bump stocks last year due to patent infringement, in 2012.
NRA: ‘We Did Not Say Ban, Confiscate Bump Stocks’
The obvious question, what would change a third time around? Would the ATF make a different determination on bump stocks?
Rick Vasquez, a former Firearms Technology Branch official who signed off on the 2010 letter to Slide Fire, told PolitiFact that in order to re-evaluate bump stocks the ATF would have to change the way it interpreted the NFA or issue new legislation that would allow the device to be regulated.
Eek. New laws, new ways of interpreting the NFA? Sounds like a can of worms that I’m not sure we want to open.
The GOA does great work. The NRA might get more done if Wayne LaPierre had the same composure shown by Larry Pratt when questioned by liberal reporters.
On the other hand, few in the mainstream media – indeed mainstream America – know that GOA exists. They would not be as successful as they have been if the NRA didn’t take all the heat..
This whole story has more holes in it than a ring of swiss chese!
long before bump fire type stocks; the thumb in the hip pocket with the finger on the trigger worked just as well. So are we banning the THUMB?
NSSF is just another politically correct organization that is more concerned about its own enrichment than the survival of our unalienable right to keep and bear arms. There is no such thing as “reasonable gun control.” It has nothing to do with controlling guns and everything to do with controlling people. Government knows it cannot impose its will over we the people when we are armed. And the government desperately wants to disarm us. Not on my watch. Too many patriots gave up all of their tomorrows so my children and I can freely exercise our Second Amendment right today. Me and my well-armed house vow to all the gun grabbers that these patriots did not die in vain. The Second Amendment is our line in the sand. We have just two words for those who want our guns, “Molon labe!”
My well armed house is with you! I bet millions more are too.
As for me, I belong to Gun Owners of America, the only non compromise gun group. All you half steppers best get inline and just start yelling no and hell no. Give them one inch and the next time it will be a lot more and there will be a next time..The power behind the anti-gun movement is the ones doing this crap. I refuse to believe that out of nowhere a mass shooting club formed. Somebody somewhere is behind this crap and we gun owners are the target. Wake up fools.
If this is going to happen then yes, we want the ATF to just revise their ruling. The legislative solution to this (banning anything that enhances the nebulous rate of fire) will be a massive opening for banning of everything semi-auto. I think this attempt to head off legislation is why these groups are lobbying so heavily for ATF intervention instead.
Repeal NFA ’34.
Don’t go looking for new things to ban.
Yes, ban them. Burn them. They should never have been approved in the first place. A person with a problem is usually the last person to be able to see their problem. It’s time to make changes. It’s no longer cool to worship at the massive fire power alter. It’s time to grow up. We’ll be fine with bolt and lever guns, revolver and shotguns and other hand guns of limited capacity. And the crazies will still be able to slaughter innocents, just not so many and not so quickly. A compromise for the sake of humanity.
The nut could have drove a truck through the crowd and killed more….You can’t stop these crazy people unless you kill them……If you drove a truck down the street and told everyone to throw their guns in it there would still be bad guys with guns because they aren’t going to follow the rules and put their guns in the truck….
And you sir are the enemy, Compromise never works, it’s a steep slippery slope that only we the gun owners are expected to climb. If you feel the way you wrote them by all means dispose of all the guns you own that you find distasteful but in truth I think you are a troll and not a gun owner. You are the enemy.
Pete, I agree that something needs to be done. After doing a little research, I found, from 1791 – 1968 (177 years) that 7 major gun control laws were implemented by the US government. From 1968 – 2017 (49 years) there have been 33 major gun control laws implemented by the US government. I think everyone would agree, that after imposing all of the laws and restrictions implemented to protect us as a nation has produced less than desirable results. I am unimpressed that for the past 226 years, our elected officials continue to propose and pass gun law after gun law with no tangible results. I propose an “Out Of The Box” solution that would protect everyone from psychopaths determined to mass murder people no matter what type of mass murder device was utilized. There is only one similarity that all mass murder events have in common, that is a gathering of a mass amount of people. I propose that the US government implement a nation wide ban on all gatherings larger than 15 people. If implemented, this solution would prevent 98.3% of all future mass murder events. There are many variations that could be applied to the “mass gathering law” that would further the agenda of the current gun control laws. My suggestion would be to make it illegal for conservative or Christian groups to gather unless they have 100 or more people attending the event.
They propose that the ATF make the call? That’s the definition of letting the fox in the chicken coop!
Nothing new here; NSSF threw small-time FFLs under the bus for Bill Clinton too.
With friends like this, who needs “Moms demand action in their minivans at the back of the parking lot” to come after us?
The trigger is pulled one time per bullet. It doesn’t matter whether it is a finger or an object that pulls it.
A fully automatic weapons is defined by how many bullet emerges from one pull of the trigger. Period. A bump fire device causes the trigger to be pulled once per bullet fired.
Regulation by madman. Its always tragic and sad when a persons life is cut short in such a sad tragic pointless way. If he had used one of his airplanes to crash into the event, would they be going after the aircraft owners assn.?
It’s sad when people blame inanimate objects rather than focusing and placing blame on the killer who did the killing. It seems everything in American nowadays has to focus on someone putting blame on someone or something else
If the anatomical structure (specifically muscles and tendons) does not physically contract to “PULL” the trigger: it does not fit the definition of “one shot per pull of the trigger”. The BFS recipration causes the trigger TO MOVE AGAINST a static, none moving finger which causes the firearm to fire. It would be machinegun part under current CFR/Law. Obviously the BATFE did not look at how the finger in the trigger guard and sitting on a designed “Rest”; interfaces with the device. IMHO
Exactly right. With a bump-fire-stock, the first pull of the trigger initiates fire, and the rifle will fire until either the ammunition supply is exhausted or the finger is removed from the trigger. Sounds like full-auto to me. It’s no different than the Auto-Glove, “binary” trigger or any of the other ammunition-wasting devices that excite victims of arrested emotional development.
Agree with both of your comments. When I first saw these devices on YouTube, on-line demos, etc, I was totally shocked that they had gotten a waiver from the BATFE. I also knew, sadly, that one of these devices would be used someday in a horrendous crime and the gun-grabbers would have ammo (no pun intended) to come after law-abiding AR owners again. If you want to waste ammo and burn up barrels, you can “bump-fire” without these devices and get your “tacticool” rocks off all you want….otherwise stupid invention, IMO
You do realize that you don’t need a fancy stock to “bump fire” any semi automatic, Right? This is the first step in semi auto ban! There is no compromise to human rights unless you want them to become privileges granted by government!
Wrong.
Without applying the constant forward pressure needed by your off hand, even with a slide fire stock it will shoot like it did with a normal stock.
You are facilitating the pull in an unconventional method is all, requiring 2 hands to maintain forward pressure on rifle and your finger still does move to depress the trigger, just not as much as a standard setup does.
Now, if shorted trigger pulls are what you have an issue with, I hope you never installed any aftermarket trigger kits designed to shorter the pull or eliminate trigger slack, because that would make you a hypocrite.