Lame Duck Dems Take Aim at Bump Stocks, Conversion Devices

AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool

Senate Democrats are kicking off their lame-duck session with a hearing on bump stocks and "conversion devices", with Sen. Dick Durbin and others on the Judiciary Committee wasting little time before accusing the Supreme Court of putting Americans at risk by throwing out the Trump administration's ban on bump stocks in the Cargill case earlier this year. 

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It's not that simple. If it were, the Court would have decided Cargill differently. Instead, a majority of justices concluded that a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a “machinegun” as defined by federal law because it can't fire more than one shot “by a single function of the trigger” and even if it could, it would not do so “automatically.” 

The Court concluded that ATF exceeded its statutory authority by issuing a rule that improperly classified bump stocks as "machineguns", and therefore the rule must be struck down.  

Bump stocks aren't the sole focus of today's hearing however. Durbin and company also took aim at illegal switches and auto-sears that do convert semi-automatic firearms into fully-automatic machine guns, while conflating them with bump stocks. 

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One difference? While the bump stock-equipped rifles found in the Las Vegas shooter's hotel room were legal, the auto-sear used in the Birmingham, Alabama shooting was already illegal to possess under federal law. So what further action do Democrats think Congress should take to address the illegal use of switches? 

Last time I checked, Democrats were still in control of the Senate. Even if the BUMP Act wouldn't meet the 60-vote threshold for passage, there's nothing stopping Chuck Schumer from bringing that bill out of committee and onto the Senate floor for a vote. 

Again, though, while bump stocks may have been used in the Las Vegas shootings, they're not commonly found at crime scenes or even suspected of being used in a lot of violent crimes. The use of switches and auto-sears is more common (though still the exception, and not the rule), but those items are already prohibited under federal law. So again, what exactly are Democrats suggesting be done? 

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Some of the recommendations from Professor Jens Ludwig are fairly reasonable; increased prosecution for those using illegally converted firearms in violent crimes and deterring those crimes from being committed through effective violence prevention programs. His suggestion about legislating the use of 3D printers, on the other hand, is more problematic, and could easily be abused by legislators and regulators. 

As of mid-day, the Democrats' hearing hasn't really touched on what seems to be the "solution" most favored by anti-gun activists: reclassifying Glocks (and perhaps other semi-automatic firearms) as machine guns under the National Firearms Act. The city of Chicago has sued Glock over the supposed ease of illegally converting their striker-fired pistols into full-auto machine guns, and is seeking an injunction banning the sale of Glocks to Chicago residents and throughout the state of Illinois. 

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The Biden administration, meanwhile, put together a task force that's supposed to issue recommendations on "emerging firearm threats" like conversion devices next month, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the committee endorse reclassification in its report. I don't think that idea is going anywhere in the Trump administration, but we will probably see more Democrat-controlled cities and states adopt Chicago's arguments in the coming months.  

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