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The Center for American Progress reports
Before Stephen Paddock opened fire at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip last October, killing 58 and wounding hundreds, most Americans probably hadn't heard of bump-fire stocks--add-ons that lets a semiautomatic rifle fire as quickly as a machine gun. Until that mass shooting, they were a novelty known only among firing-range enthusiasts and Cool Gun YouTube.
Within months of Las Vegas, lawmakers introduced bipartisan legislation[1] to outlaw the devices, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, or ATF, announced plans to ban them through regulation.[2]
But gun control advocates warn bump stocks are just one part of a much bigger problem. A flood of new gun technologies is pushing the envelope on what a civilian can legally own, skirting laws that have kept the most dangerous weapons off the street for decades.
[...] Weapons like machine guns, silencers, and short-barreled rifles and shotguns are regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934 and subsequent amendments. To own one of those weapons, a civilian has to go through a lengthy approval process and pay a special tax. The job of deciding whether a gun falls under NFA's restrictions falls to ATF.
Gun manufacturers have used the law's technicalities to create guns that are just as powerful, and deadly, as restricted weapons but without the added tax and strict regulations.
Take the SAINT, by Springfield Armory. It's an AR-15 with a 30-round magazine and a 7.5-inch barrel. That's shorter than the legal rifle length under federal law. But instead of a shoulder stock, the SAINT has a "stabilizing brace" or "forearm brace"--a device designed to attach to a shooter's forearm for one-handed firing rather than resting against their shoulder. By ATF's definition, the SAINT is a pistol, not a rifle, because it isn't meant to be fired from the shoulder. So anyone who can pass a federal background check can buy one online for $989.
[...] Stabilizing braces aren't the only new gun tech to skirt around the National Firearms Act. Franklin Armory's Binary Trigger System fires two rounds with every shot--one when the trigger is depressed and one when it's released, doubling the rate of fire. Like bump stocks and stabilizing braces, binary triggers aren't currently regulated under the National Firearms Act.
In one YouTube video, a man uses a binary trigger to fire a 30-round magazine in less than five seconds. In another, a binary trigger beats out a fully-automatic weapon.
[1] Bogus link in TFA. Fixed in TFS.
[2] Content is behind scripts.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @11:40AM (3 children)
Our ability to kill many people at once isn't enough. We need the ability to kill more people in less time. Faster is better, and faster means we can kill more and still get away before the inadequately armed police arrive.
American innovation and efficiency will not be held back by bleeding heart liberals, or anything that's bleeding for that matter.
The right to bear arms was written into the Constitution (the 2nd Amendment). Your right to remain alive is only imagined; the 14th Amendment only says a State cannot deprive you of life.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday June 24 2018, @12:07PM (2 children)
That right gets broken roughly 55 million [ecology.com] times a year and there's not much we can do about it. Interesting how someone can indeed bring up some imaginary and completely unimplementable right to "remain alive" in order to destroy a right that is on the books.
How about you respect my right to not read stupid bullshit on the internet and just stop posting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @07:30PM (1 child)
The US Constitution grants no right. Denied. Furthermore, the US Constitution DOES grant me the right to speak, and so I will keep posting, because. it. is. my. right. Go ahead, just TRY and stop me.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday June 24 2018, @10:58PM
I hope at least, that it bans sarcasm!