The legality of an ATF rule banning bump stocks
There is an estimated 500,000 bump stocks in circulation, which were purchased legally.
While many gun owners feel that a bump stock ban (even reaching out and banning similar “rate of fire enhancers” such as trigger cranks and binary triggers) is low-hanging fruit when it comes to gun control, there is still a certain smack of incrementalism attached to it. Further, the vehicle for the looming federal ban (which will almost surely happen) is through a somewhat sketchy regulatory rule change by ATF, not an act of Congress, which gives even more heartburn to a lot of folks.
Like the FPC and their attorney allies, Joshua Prince and Adam Kraut. I’ve talked to the FPC guys extensively over the years and have met both Adam and Josh and they are all on top of their game. They recently got a 923-page comment (!) in on the proposed rulemaking that calls the whole unconstitutionally of the thing into question. Their point is that the devices fire once per each pull of the trigger, meeting federal law, and to add an asterisk to it after the fact isn’t really all that legal– and sets the stage for more asterisks.
More in my column at Guns.com