Former ATF Gun Tech Chief: Bump Stock Ban Will Lead to Other Bans

Former ATF Gun Tech Chief Rick Vasquez warns that the ATF’s current push to ban bump stocks will open the door to other bans.

A legislative push to ban bump stocks lost steam within a month of the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas attack. The public simply did not rally behind the gun control campaign. This left the ruling class no option but to take the regulatory route and seek bump stock gun control via ATF edict.

On December 22, 2017, Breitbart News reported that the ATF was formulating a redefinition of “machineguns” so that the term would cover “machineguns” and non-machineguns as well. Gun controllers have to do this because a bump stock does not convert a semiautomatic firearm into a “machinegun.” Rather, it allows a semiautomatic firearm to mimic full-auto fire in short bursts, but does so without converting the firearm’s action or allowing multiple rounds to be fired with a single trigger pull.

Even with a bump stock attached a semiautomatic firearm only shoots one round per trigger pull.

Moreover, under Barack Obama the ATF examined bump stocks and approved them for sale on the grounds that they are accessories, not conversion devices.

The ATF’s former gun tech chief is warning that efforts to redefine “machineguns,” for the the purposes of banning bump stocks, will only lead to more bans. He told the Military Arms Channel, “So ATF’s been directed to write a regulation with the strength of a law.” He said the advance notice copy of the new rule makes clear that the ATF’s new regulation will ban “any device that automatically resets a firearm and enhances the rate of fire.” He added, “That is extremely broad.”

Vasquez observed, “They are trying to target binary triggers, [bump stock] devices, and other devices, but that is such broad language, can I take that to a Gatling gun? …So now you start stretching this [new] definition, and who is going to decide what the [standard] rate of fire is?” In other words, Vasquez is saying a this new ban simply opens the door to “stretching” the language to cover other devices, as the ruling class sees fit.

On January 11, 2018, Breitbart News reported that Gun Owners of America was taking the lead against bump stock gun control and sounding the alarm that the ATF’s bump stock ban would lead to other bans. They reacted to Vasquez’s statements by tweeting:

Vasquez also stressed that there will be no “grandfather clause” with a new ATF bump stock ban. This means individuals who refuse to turn over a bump stocks will immediately become a “prohibited person.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange