The fight to ban bump stocks – again – is not yet over, even after the Supreme Court struck down a Trump-era ban on this accessory for semi-automatic rifles. Just days after the Court nixed the previous ban in a 6-3 decision, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on June 18 tried to push the Banning Unlawful Machine Gun Parts (BUMP) Act through the Senate by unanimous consent. This attempt failed when one Republican senator resisted the move. Democrats in Congress are now ready, it seems, to make bump stocks the pre-election centerpiece of their crusade against Second Amendment rights – in the name of public safety, of course.
Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska thwarted the attempt to use a special Senate mechanism that allows legislation to be passed quickly if every member of the upper chamber agrees. Ricketts maintains the BUMP Act is “overreaching” and would allow the banning of many other firearms accessories.
As Liberty Nation News has reported, bump stocks were first banned in 2017 after an active shooter killed 60 people and wounded hundreds of others in Las Vegas. The gunman had multiple rifles, several of which were fitted with bump stocks.
A bump stock, which replaces a semi-automatic rifle’s original buttstock, uses the weapon’s recoil to “bump” the trigger against the shooter's finger with every reloading cycle. The effect is a more rapid rate of fire, but contrary to what the anti-gun lobby claims, a bump stock does not magically convert a semi-automatic rifle into a “machine gun.” A separate operation of the trigger is still required for each shot – the bump stock just makes the process a lot quicker.
No Idea What a Bump Stock Is?
Those advocating for a new bump stock ban, meanwhile, have once again been keeping gun owners amused by demonstrating their utter lack of firearms knowledge. CNN recently produced some slick graphics demonstrating how a bump stock works. The only problem is that their animation showed a standard AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle with a regular telescoping buttstock sliding back and forth. For those not familiar with semi-automatic long guns, that is not how a stock works.
Another left-wing news outlet, Washington, DC-based UPI, published a report on June 14 about the Supreme Court's striking down of the ban. In this article, bump stocks are described as “attachments that allow semiautomatic weapons to fire off hundreds of rounds in a single pull of the trigger.” Again, a completely inaccurate description of what a bump stock is and how it works.
As usual, the anti-gun lobby is operating not on facts or knowledge but on emotion, fear-mongering, and reactionary measures. Unfortunately, these tactics often work on many elected Republicans. As Liberty Nation’s editor-at-large, James Fite, put it, “A heinous crime dominated the news cycle and people cried out for the president to ‘do something.’ So, he did something.” The president in question was Donald Trump, though his 2024 presidential campaign has indicated that he respects the Supreme Court's decision to overturn his ban.
It's a safe bet, though, that bump stocks will be a frequent feature of media reports in the coming weeks and a favorite topic of conversation for many congressional Democrats. The BUMP Act, or perhaps a revised version of it, is likely to be moving through Congress sometime soon, even though Sen. Schumer has not indicated that he has any immediate plans to push the legislation.
