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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: 2, Informative) by driverless on Sunday June 24 2018, @12:56PM (14 children)
Yup. And then there's always this [wordpress.com], which is pretty hard to argue against.
If you want it as a graph of actual figures, take [sciencenews.org] your pick [vox-cdn.com]...
Note that I've linked to data from actual established science/news sites, not "facts" from iloveguns.org, realactualhonestgunfacts.com, and similar.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 24 2018, @01:50PM (12 children)
Isn't that cute? Where is the graph for the REST of the world? Eastern Europe? Russia? African nations? The Carribean? Mexico?
Like so many others, VOX wants to define an elite club, and point at the US saying "You guys are the worst!"
Get all of the world on the same graph. Or, just get all of Europe on that same graph. All of Europe, and all of the US, or break all of the European countries down individually, and compare them to all of the US states individually.
Cherry picking doesn't impress me at all.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Sunday June 24 2018, @03:17PM (11 children)
Exactly. Let's compare the US to somewhere like an active war zone, perhaps Syria or Afghanistan. That'll allow (some of) us to continue denying that we have a massive gun problem.
Or anything really, just as long as we can keep denying the problem. See the first link in my posting.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 24 2018, @03:32PM (10 children)
So, eastern Europe is an active war zone - got it.
(Score: 4, Touché) by driverless on Sunday June 24 2018, @03:38PM
You misspelled "lalalala I'm not listening lalalala".
(Score: 5, Insightful) by driverless on Sunday June 24 2018, @03:43PM (7 children)
Damn, hit reply too early: Being an American, you're probably not aware that the Ukraine, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia are in eastern Europe. Or possibly even that they exist. They're certainly active war zones though.
Well, not sure if Fox, Infowars, or Breitbart have mentioned them, so you may not know that either.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday June 24 2018, @03:45PM (5 children)
To other Americans reading this: I'm making fun of this one particular guy because it's such an easy target, not y'all in general :-).
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 24 2018, @04:07PM (4 children)
Easy target. You might want to do a search of this site. Use my nick, and the terms "Georgia Ukraine Ossetia Crimea Russia". Yes, I'm aware that much of eastern Europe is in turmoil. And I'm also making fun of you Euros who distance yourself from your own neighbors. "Oh, but that's not Europe", or "Yes, but we live in the CIVILIZED portion of Europe!"
Again, I say stop cherry picking. The US and Europe are a reasonable comparison. The US has communities that has almost no violent crime. If you insist on cherry picking, I can do the same thing, and find statistics that make London look like a world class hellhole.
Next - you'll claim that there is no war in the US, like there is in Ukraine. And, I'll have to point to the statistics on our southern border. Declared or not, there is a war, right here.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/ [borderlandbeat.com]
Mainstream media won't give you any of that news. They don't notice when a bus is hijacked, then months later, all 50, 60, or even more passengers are found in a mass grave. Yes, we can legitimately compare our statistics to Eastern Europe, along with Western Europe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @04:33PM (3 children)
Ooooh, ok it makes more sense why you and some others around here sound so crazy. You believe there is a literal was r on the Mexican border. Wow.
When did economic migrants become soldiers again?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 24 2018, @04:38PM (1 child)
Click the link, and read. Lemme think a moment. The US lost about 40,000 people in Vietnam, over a period of about - uhhh - 15 years, I think. Mexico has lost more people in ten years, than the US lost in Vietnam.
If you read some of the stories at the link provided, you may choose to remain silent, and thought a fool, than to open your mouth to prove that you are a fool.
Yes, there is a war on our southern border. You may have heard references to a "war on drugs". If you step across our southern border, you will have entered the active battleground.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @06:11PM
Good to know how nuts you RWNJs are. Every country has problems with crime and smuggling, only the US has turned it into another wsrmachine profit mechanism. You brainwashed foo!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday June 24 2018, @11:08PM
And you should too. It is a war.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @09:03PM
Not that people are currently shooting, but South Ossetia and Abkhazia are clearly in Asia. Are you trying to determine continent by race? The line runs through the Black Sea.
Ukraine is more questionable. If we say that the line splits the country though, that very neatly puts the war zone in Asia and the peaceful part in Europe.
None of the above are in the EU or in any of the other sorts of regional agreements associated with Europe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @09:10PM
Ukraine? Upper North Macedonia? Don't try to play stupid, Runaway! You're not smart enough to pull it off. Oh, and we're coming to take your gun. Mandatory Mental Health Checks, coming soon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @06:37PM
Ever heard of Correlation vs Causation?
Also best part of your stupid graphic #1 is the caveat of "in developed world." When you have to add a qualifier to make your point, there is a very big chance it's fucking bullshit. Maybe there is something else different between US and European countries, other than guns.
You want to cherry-pick? How about you break down the Homicide rates by Race... Oh what's wrong then? Is it that White Americans have a Homicide rate very close to the White Europeans? Or that Black Americans have a homicide rate very close to Black Africans? How can that fucking be?!