Justice and ATF are looking to ban bump stocks:

Possessing firearm parts that are used exclusively in converting a weapon into a machine gun is illegal, except for certain limited circumstances, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said in a joint statement. Today we begin the process of determining whether or not bump stocks are covered by this prohibition.

That whole Vegas shooting thing has really dropped of the radar, hasn’t it? Wonder why.

The Closing the Bump Stock Loophole Act. It’s not a loophole, unless loophole means something we don’t like. As to the bill, it looks like it would classify the devices as NFA items, subject to the $200 tax and all that. The bill was written with ATF “guidance and advice”.

This looks like a better* of other proposals that could outlaw after market triggers.

And, as I’ve said before, if this passes, gun owners need to get something in return.

* I’m using that word loosely. It’s still a dumb law. But at least it looks like it’s written by someone who isn’t ignorant of current law.

The Brady Campaign is suing the ATF. Seems the Brady bunch filed a Freedom of Information Act request and ATF didn’t respond.

The ATF will not reclassify bump stocks.

Jacob Sullum points out that the NRA is playing a dangerous game on this bumpstock business:

The NRA opposes a legislative ban on bump stocks but wants the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to reconsider the question of whether they are legal. The administrative approach favored by the NRA invites unelected bureaucrats to rewrite a statute for political purposes, undermining the rule of law and the separation of powers.

*snip*

The NRA has tried to divert that response by urging the ATF to “immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law.” On Face the Nation last week, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre noted that “it’s illegal to convert a semiautomatic to a fully automatic,” adding, “We think ATF ought to do its job, look at this, and draw a bright line.”

As a wookie-suiter myself, I agree with his point. However, I think NRA’s motivation is more political. And brilliant. They throw the blame at the Obama administration. Take the popular view on bumpstocks. And get in a jab at ATF. And it panders to the Trump base.

The conspiratorial side of me can’t rule out they took this position because they don’t want to put it to a congressional that vote they’d later have to grade.

Bump stocks do not convert semiautomatics into machine guns.

The fallout and eventual attempt to legislate these away (which seems to be ATF’s goal, as opposed to NRA who thinks ATF should reevaluate their ruling) will be interesting. If legislated away, what happens to those already in possession? I mean, you cannot add new machine guns to the registry. And you can’t have an ex post facto law banning these things, I would think. I’m not a lawyer. But I recall when ATF changed its mind on the Akins Accelerator. People got to keep the stocks but had to turn in the springs.

The ATF guy who greenlighed the bumpstock: We could not find a way to classify it as a machine gun

Do you guys not remember the mental gymnastics you went through on the street sweepers? Or your various whoopsies, like with the Akins Accelerator or pistol braces. I guess they just weren’t committed enough this time for some reason.

The bump stock. They’re all the rage on the internet right now:

The rubber band. The evils of common office supplies:

A bump board. Evil, evil carpentry materials:

Shoestrings. No video I can show because that has actually been ruled illegal by ATF. And I wouldn’t want to incriminate some poor guy. But here’s a legal one registered with ATF:

Using your fingers. Look, ma, no evil stocks, framing materials or office supplies needed:

And there’s probably other ways that I am not familiar with. And the click baity title is a joke.

No, I don’t think a ban is a good thing. If we ban those, we’d need to ban rubber bands and boards. But here’s the statement. Based on the statement, I’m presuming they see the writing on the wall. They do not call for a ban. The want the ATF to look at the issue again. They also point out that it was Obama’s ATF that gave the OK to bump stocks. And it gives a nod to national reciprocity. Overall, it’s a pretty brilliant approach to it.

I think these things will be banned. I think it’s stupid to ban them. However, a derpy product that I didn’t want a week ago and still don’t want now is not exactly the fight I’m willing to focus on. As I said before, if they ban this then the pro-gun side better get something out of it. You know, compromise and all that. And we should go for reciprocity and if we add bump stocks to the NFA, we should remove silencers. The Second Amendment Foundation seems to agree.

What options does the ATF have?

And this guy went full retard: Second Amendment supporter and Tennessee resident destroys AR-15 bump stock, calls for it to be outlawed. Just to get some TeeVee time. Sad.

Remember way back in 2012 when David Gregory, clearly breaking DC law, held up an AR-15 magazine and showed it to the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre. He held it as though it had some magical killing power. It’s a box with a spring in it. Yup. All the righteous indignation over a box with a spring in it.

Well, the story is the same now only replace box with tube. Bumpfiring is an effective way of turning money into noise. It’s ineffective at shooting accurately. These bumpfire gizmos are basically tubes that go over some part of the gun. And some have springs in them. They’re simple. The loon in Vegas had 12 bumpfire stocks.

So, obviously we must ban them. That law was written by someone who knows absolutely nothing about guns or gun laws. Are we going to ban rubber-bands too? How about shoestrings? A lot of folks can bumpfire without the assistance of a device. It’s not hard. Just takes some practice.

Sounds silly. But ATF has already banned springs, to an extent. Conversion device rules are generally silly.

Now, of all the proposed gun laws the democrats and press (but I repeat myself) are going on about out there, I think this one is most likely to pass due to the hysteria from those ignorant of how these things work. And if it does, the pro-gun side damn well better get something in return. Or the Republicans will lose a lot of voters.

Mentioned the AutoGlove a bit back. It’s a contraption the pulls the trigger really fast. Well, the ATF has come out and said it’s not legal. It’s the same non-logic that lead to certain actuators being dubbed no go in the past.

Their secret bank account with millions.

ATF has released its report on Firearms Commerce (pdf file). The data on page 15 I found interesting as it ranked guns and NFA items by state ownership.

And NFA items, in general, show a steady increase in sales.

Some good info here.

ATF and three manufacturers have worked to modernize the NFA transfer process.

Looks like ATF will be issuing two determinations. One involving angled forward grips and the other on modular suppressors.

Silencer Shop is reporting getting Form 3s back from ATF in 24 hours. There is no reason any NFA transfer should take more than a day.

Long time readers may remember the Akins Accelerator. If you don’t, the TLDR version is that it was a bumpfire stock for the Ruger 10/22 (the first I’d seen) except it had a spring to do the bumping. A sample was sent to ATF, who couldn’t get the thing to work, for approval. ATF initially approved the device. Then, they actually saw one of them working and ruled that it was a machine gun. All the people who shelled out $1,200 for it now had to remove the evil spring to comply with ATF’s ruling.

Somehow it escaped my notice that there is now a springless version called the Akins Accelerator 2. Here’s a video of it in action:

Looks to be a simple bumpfire type stock now. Banning that evil spring helped.

I like it.

ATF wants to know what regulations should be modified or repealed. Says the Trace, with much butthurt:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is polling outside interest groups about what gun regulations to eliminate following an edict from the Trump administration to cut government red tape.

In three closed-door meetings held in May and June, top ATF officials separately asked firearms-industry leaders, law enforcement officials, and representatives from gun-violence prevention groups what current regulations could be eliminated without risking public safety, according to attendees who went to one or more of the meetings.

An agenda for a May 22 meeting with gun-industry leaders, obtained by The Trace, asked attendees to consider three questions: what impact current regulations have on gun-violence prevention; what regulations need to be repealed, replaced, or modified, and what regulations are outdated.

We could repeal quite a few without thinking much about it.

ATF has rolled out a van that can test guns and shell casings on the spot:

Six months after President Donald Trump threatened to send the feds to Chicago to fix the horrible carnage going on, city officials announced on Monday that theyve been getting some more federal crime-fighting aid in the form of a mobile firearms forensics van thats been roaming the streets for three weeks. The van, which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) first rolled out in May, makes it possible to immediately test guns and shell casings at a crime scene. Its aimed at helping police departments around the country, an ATF spokesperson told Mother Jones.

It’s Chicago. They’ll be busy.

Incompetence, apparently:

NFA database seriously flawed

OIG asked how often there was a discrepancy between the inventory and what the NFRTR said the inventory should be: 46% of inspectors said either “always” or “most of the time.” (Only 5% reported “never”). How often was the discrepancy found in the NFRTR? 44% said always or most of the time, only 6% said “never.” The comments by inspectors were pretty eye-opening:

And these are the guys that enforce stringent reporting requirements on FFLs.

Some of these are pretty funny.

Right here. Mostly handguns. And, apparently, quite a few people lose suppressors.

It’s said that these people get to decide what can actually land a person in jail. A bit back, they gave stabilizing braces approval. Then, in a really stupid letter, said that if you shouldered one, that made it a SBR. Well, they’ve gone and changed their mind again:

SB Tactical, inventors and manufacturers of the Pistol Stabilizing Brace, is excited to announce that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) has issued SB Tactical a reversal letter containing a sensible clarification of the Bureaus position on the lawful use of SB Tactical braces.

The new clarification of opinion letter states, an NFA firearm has not necessarily been made when the device is not reconfigured for use as a shoulder stock even if the attached firearm happens to be fired from the shoulder. To the extent that the January 2015 Open Letter implied or has been construed to hold that incidental, sporadic, or situational use of an arm-brace (in its original approved configuration) equipped firearm from a firing position at or near the shoulder was sufficient to constitute redesign, such interpretations are incorrect and not consistent with ATFs interpretation of the statute or the manner in which it has historically been enforced.

Tam thinks something is afoot: The extent to which these three factoids are related is an exercise left up to the reader.

An article at NRA on the issue. It highlights some of ATF’s greatest hits.

San Diego Union Tribune:

A letter from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to law enforcement agencies across Southern California warning about an emerging problem of officers engaging in unlicensed firearms sales came just weeks after a Pasadena police officers home was searched and guns seized.

The March 31 letter from Eric Harden, the ATFs Los Angeles Field Division special agent in charge, said the agency has discovered officers buying and then reselling handguns without a federal firearms license. That violates federal gun laws.

The ATF letter, first reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune, came after a Feb. 16 search of the home of a high-ranking Pasadena police officer. News reports at the time said several large gun cases were removed from the officers Sierra Madre home and loaded into ATF vehicles.

There’s a market for off roster guns (those are guns not OK to buy because the state says so) and the police appear to be filling that market. I don’t think the ATF guy is right about violating federal gun laws. You can re-sell a gun. I suppose he did enough volume that it was a business. Also, it’s California and their laws are wonky.

An arrest has been made for the murder of border agent Brian Terry. He was murdered by a gun that the Obama administration let “walk” into Mexico for some reason.

This was making the rounds back in February. But it seems to have gotten new life:

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives used a secret, off-the-books bank account to rent a $21,000 suite at a Nascar race, take a trip to Las Vegas and donate money to the school of one of the agents children, according to records and interviews.

Agents also used the account to finance undercover operations around the country, despite laws prohibiting government officials from using private money to supplement their budgets, according to current and former government officials and others familiar with the account.

The revelations highlight the lax oversight at the A.T.F. that allowed agents and informants to spend millions while avoiding the normal accounting process. The Justice Departments inspector general, who is investigating the secret account, criticized the A.T.F. recently for mismanagement and said the agency did not know how many informants it had or how much they were paid.

They really just flaunt their lack of accountability like no one else.

The ATF has reportedly reorganized it’s NFA branch. It now has two branched. One branch to support processing of NFA paperwork. This processing is stupid to begin with. All that should be done is, basically, cashing a check and running a NICS check.

The other branch to support SOTs.