Trump reverses Obama-era rule to ban bump stocks

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill




BY JOHN BOWDEN - 03/23/18 05:07 PM EDT

President Trump on Friday announced that his administration would reverse a 2010 decision by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive (ATF) classifying bump stocks as firearm parts, allowing them to be banned under existing laws that prohibit fully automatic weapons.

In a tweet, Trump announced that he was directing the Justice Department to reverse the ATF decision and would ban bump stocks following a mandatory public comment period. The president also faulted the Obama administration for the 2010 decision.

Link to tweet

The decision Friday follows a letter sent by GOP senators in October urging the administration to review the decision after a mass shooter using the technology killed 58 people at a country music concert in Las Vegas.

"Unfortunately, we are all now keenly aware of how this device operates and believe that this renewed review and determination will keep our citizens safe and ensure that federal law is enforced," the nine Republicans wrote last year.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/380018-trump-reverses-obama-era-rule-to-ban-bump-stocks

[cilla4progress]

1. So

That’s a lie?!

[WePurrsevere]

3. Maybe this will help: PolitiFact on Obama & Bump Stock...

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/oct/06/national-rifle-association/nra-claim-obama-approved-bump-stocks/

From the link above...

Obama issued a slew of executive orders promoting stricter gun control, which the Trump administration has been rolling back, including a measure that previously prevented people with mental illness from buying guns.

[Snip]

In order to re-evaluate the bump stock, Vasquez said the ATF would have to change the way it interpreted the National Firearms Act or issue new legislation that would allow the device to be regulated.

Our ruling
The NRA said, "The Obama administration approved the sale of bump fire stocks on at least two occasions."

We indeed found two occasions in which ATF, a bureau within the executive branch, decided it could not regulate bump stocks during the Obama administration.

These decisions allowed two companies to sell bump stocks. It’s important to note this was not a statement of Obama’s preferred policy, which called for more regulation of guns, but was what the agency determined it had to do under the language of current law.

I'd say Trump is doing his normal bs.

[LeftInTX]

2. Did the Hill change their headline? Cuz this is what is says now:

Trump orders DOJ to issue rule banning bump stocks

[mac56]

4. Obama did not "approve" or "legalize" bump stocks.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/oct/06/national-rifle-association/nra-claim-obama-approved-bump-stocks/

The ATF twice determined that current law did not allow for their regulation. To do so, they would have had to change the way it interpreted the National Firearms Act or issue new regulation that called for regulation.

So for Dufus to claim Obama "legalized" bump stocks is of course just another of his many, many lies.

[MichMan]

5. What was stopping the ATF from doing so ?

Couldn't they have done the same thing back then that was proposed now?

[Adrahil]

8. This will be challenged in court, no doubt.

The current law defines a machine gun as a weapon that fire more than one cartridge with a single pull of a trigger:

26 U.S.C. § 5845(b) For the purposes of the National Firearms Act the term Machinegun means: Any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. ​

Bump stocks do not do that. It'll be hard to ban them under current law.

Those pesky technicalities pop up once again.