Comments to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the Matter of the Language of the National Firearms Act and the Definition of “Machinegun”

By Ilya Shapiro Ilya Shapiro

For years, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms has maintained that “bump stocks”—devices that allow a firearm to reciprocate slightly and assist in “bump firing”—are not “machineguns.” From 2007 to 2017, spanning multiple administrations (including the current one), the ATF issued 10 different opinion letters confirming that the devices were not “machineguns” or “machine gun conversions,” and thus did not fall under the purview of the National Firearms Act of 1934 and Gun Control Act of 1968, two federal laws which heavily regulate machine gun ownership.

Under federal law, a “machinegun” is a device “which shoots … automatically more than one shot…by a single function of the trigger.” With language so clear, the provision was never considered ambiguous by a reviewing court over 80 years of decisions—and the ATF’s interpretation remained consistent. It is for this reason that bump stocks, and crank-operated “Gatling guns,” while having a high rate of fire, have never been considered “machineguns.” (Yes, virtually anyone can own a Gatling gun under federal law.) What could change the state of such settled law, then? Political expediency.

After the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, where the shooter used a bump stock, President Trump …Read the Rest

Source:: Cato Institute