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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: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @05:14PM (3 children)
"Shall not infringe" is clear. *Anything* that infringes is illegal (in the US at least, if you live in a fascist or socialist state, YMMV )
And no, the states do not have the right to contradict the Constitution. Sure, they have plenty of rights, but that isn't one of them as they agreed to abide by it when they joined the union.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 24 2018, @10:08PM (2 children)
You forgot to mention the part about "Well Regulated Militia".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @12:08AM
And if you understood what that meant, you wouldn't be commenting.
Hint - Its all of us, well trained.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Monday June 25 2018, @02:47AM
It's not forgotten, it's just read to meant what it says. e.g.
... is reasonably obvious what it means. Why is this so much more difficult to understand?
If that wasn't plain enough, there are mountains of evidence regarding the founders' intent in the federalist papers and correspondence.
We have a legal amendment process for changing the Constitution. If you don't like the second amendment then use the process to change it. Chipping away at the clear intent of the existing document is dishonest.