Until now, “bump-stocks” were a novelty item that frankly were pretty much unknown outside of industry insiders such as buyers and industry reps. Nobody in the industry ever took them seriously and I know several manufacturers rep groups that signed on to represent companies such as slide-fire, only to resign due to lack of sales. Most dealers outside of CA that I know who bought them for inventory have been sitting on them all this time.
The reality, is that there is nothing new about bump firing a semi-auto. It’s just a trigger manipulation parlor trick that produces an extremely fast semi-automatic rate of fire, far faster than what you can achieve by squeezing the trigger in a conventional manner. The “bump-fire” stocks simply took this “parlor trick” and simplified it with a mechanical attachment. The downside of bump-firing, as anyone who ever tried it found, was that hitting anything was blind luck. I’m sure that the few people who actually bought a bump-fire stock found this to be equally true and probably removed the stock after the first time they figured out that they just dumped $10 worth of ammo downrange and ended up with no holes in the target.
Unfortunately, this a-hole in Vegas exploited the one situation in which a bump-fire stock would actually accomplish anything. What resulted was an incredible tragedy. Unfortunately, this tragedy has created a precedent for other evil individuals to exploit what would otherwise have simply gone down as one more useless rifle accessory that disappeared from the shelves as soon as the company that made it went out of business.
Does the ATF need to review their decision to okay the stocks? Maybe occasional review is needed in some instances. Should it be outlawed? That’s harder to say as I’m obviously extremely pro-2nd amendment and oppose most restrictions on our freedom, but I’m also very open and sincere when discussing things and I’ll listen to everyone’s opinion.
What I do know is that this situation really needs to be addressed by the ATF and kept out of the legislative process… where it can be amended and prostituted into being far more reaching that simply going after bump stocks.
by a Friend in the Gun Industry
