Bump stock charges dropped

[sassnetguy50]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/first-bump-stock-prosecution-under-trump-edict-backfires-in-houston/ar-BB1b6mCC

 

Regardless of how you feel on bump stocks, this post is about the government bending to pressure against our rights. 

 

 

[sassnetguy50]

Here is the article from the above link:

 

“The first case testing a Trump administration edict outlawing bump stocks failed during a brief federal bench trial in Tuesday in Houston.

A federal prosecutor withdrew the unique charge before the trial began for a Houston man accused of owning the device. However, the defense was prepared to call an ATF expert to testify that bump stocks, attachments that cause a rifle to fire more rapidly, do not render a semiautomatic gun a machine gun.

Senior U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller convicted Ajay Dhingra, 44, on three remaining counts that he lied when he purchased a handgun, rifle and ammunition, and illegally possessed a weapon as a person who had been committed for mental illness.

Experts had conflicting views on the matter, said defense attorney Tom Berg. But Rick Vasquez, a retired ATF agent and firearms expert, would have told the court the bump stock did not meet the statutory definition of a machine gun. The prosecution dismissed case, he said, because the government couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt the bump stock was a machine gun.

Dhingra’s sentencing is expected to be expedited. He has been in federal custody since his arrest in 2019.

Sidestepping the standard congressional lawmaking process for firearms, Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Whitaker issued the rule in December 2018, giving official notice through an administrative rule that bump stocks fell within the federal definition of “machine gun” because they allow a person to shoot a semiautomatic firearm in a continuous cycle with a single pull of the trigger.

 

Berg said the difference, according to the expert, was that a machine gun continues to fire once you pull trigger. The bump stock is a different mechanical operation, you can hold it loosely, but you have to make contact with the trigger each time and fire single shots.

Bump stocks became a hot button issue following a 2017 massacre from a Las Vegas in which a gunman killed 58 people during a country music festival.”

[Pat Riot]

Yes, and this will galvanize the BATFE to be more overbearing, more bureaucratic, more lawyer-like and not law enforcement-like. 

Personally, I couldn’t care less about bump stocks. What I care about is how much effort and wasted time and money that has gone into this issue when stupid draconian laws founded in Hollywood hand-wringing and feel good politics of old  like those that govern suppressors (silencers) and SBRs continue to exist with no sunset in sight. 

[Smuteye John SASS#24774]

10 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Yes, and this will galvanize the BATFE to be more overbearing, more bureaucratic, more lawyer-like and not law enforcement-like. 

Personally, I couldn’t care less about bump stocks. What I care about is how much effort and wasted time and money that has gone into this issue when stupid draconian laws founded in Hollywood hand-wringing and feel good politics of old  like those that govern suppressors (silencers) and SBRs continue to exist with no sunset in sight. 

Let us not forget that the majority of the damage is being done by 'policy' and 'interpretation' not actual law changes.  The ATF has successfully convinced the nation that their bureaucracy- not the law itself but their opinion and current interpretation of it- has the final say over a personal Right specifically inscribed in the US Constitution.

 

Let's not forget that they are about to have the backing of the new administration, too.  I'm sure that Creepy, Sleepy's Gun Czar Robert Frances is going to have all the support he will need in the ATF's bureaucracy to bend interpretations and setting policy to support his goals..

[watab kid]

"...Personally, I couldn’t care less about bump stocks. What I care about is how much effort and wasted time and money that has gone into this issue when stupid draconian laws founded in Hollywood hand-wringing and feel good politics of old  like those that govern suppressors (silencers) and SBRs continue to exist with no sunset in sight. .."

 

100% in agreement with your sentiment - it also points out the efforts to fix a problem of defective people by demonizing an object - im not a 'bump stock' enthusiast - i dislike them as rendering a controlable firearm to a less controled condition , but im of the mind that our second amendment is being encroached by our not being able to own machine guns - not that i want one , its the principles of the law gone amuck , 

 

if you need to fix a people problem fix the person , 

[Dantankerous]

For decades people have been hooking their thumb through a belt loop on their bluejeans and bump firing some rifles.  While fun it's not the most accurate but the effect is exciting. Bump stocks are not all that accurate either. And I'm not even certain that full automatic fire is all that accurate either but for laying down copious amounts of suppressive fire. If the Las Vegas concert shooting never happened bump stocks would never be on the radar. The whole "make bump stocks illegal" thing was nothing more than a kneejerk reaction because something had to be done. It's all crap. Both the bump stock which is nothing more than a piece of plastic, to the political kneejerk reaction because "something had to be done."

 

 

[J.D. Daily]

The ATF's interpretation of the NFA has embarrassed US attorneys in other courts.  The the ATF's determination that an AR lower is a firearm twice has forced them to decide not to appeal circuit judge rulings tossing cases involving AR lowers.  The DOJ is afraid that they will loose at the court of appeals & definitely at SCOTUS.  Especially now that there is a 6/3 conservative majority with several justices indicating that they want to narrow the Chevron doctrine.

[J. Mark Flint #31954 LIFE]

The big problem as I see it is that congress has abdicated their duty to make laws and has regulatory agencies "making" law.  Not at all how the Constitution defined their duties.