Bump-Fire Stock Sales Are Through The Roof, Which Means Banning Them Is Pointless

Shooting instructor Frankie McRae illustrates the grip on an AR-15 rifle fitted with a "bump stock" at his 37 PSR Gun Club in Bunnlevel, N.C., on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017. The stock uses the recoil of the semiautomatic rifle to let the finger "bump" the trigger, making it different from a fully automatic machine gun, which are illegal for most civilians to own. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

You’d think the anti-gunners would get the picture. Every time they try to ban something, they simply encourage people to buy more of them. Every. Single. Time.

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This time is no different, as it seems people are buying bump-fire stocks at an unprecedented rate.

Bump stocks are flying off the shelves online after Democrats immediately called for gun control legislation after the horrific Las Vegas Shooting Sunday.

Designed to enable a semi-automatic weapon to fire like a fully automatic weapon, bump stocks are usually available for purchase on the Internet but Walmart and Cabela’s— two of the nation’s largest gun sellers — appear to have discontinued bump stock sales early Wednesday. The website’s that have continued to sell them, are selling out of bump stocks or have already sold out, according to a report by The Trace.

“Due to extreme high demands, we are currently out of stock. Please check back with us shortly,” a message said posted on the website of Slide Fire Solutions, the manufacturer of a well-known bump stock.

Now, bear in mind that Sen. Feinstein’s bill will also make possessing these stocks illegal. That won’t deter some gun owners, however. They’re legal now, so they’re going to buy them now. Period.

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Yet this illustrates the key problem with something like a bump-stock ban. Well, one of them, anyway.

The genie is out of the bottle. No law is going to stop that. Those inclined to use bump-stocks for nefarious purposes already have them or will be receiving them shortly. There are simply too many out in the wild these days to ever get them all removed. No chance.

Further, as noted on Wednesday, bump-fire stocks aren’t even required for bump-fire. The same effect can be created using a rubber band or a belt loop. Are we going to ban those next? What about training? There are people who can replicate bump-fire just by pulling the trigger that fast…and they’re far more accurate than anyone with a bump-fire stock.

I get that people want to do something, anything, to avert another tragedy like Las Vegas, but this isn’t the way. You will never legislate away all the ways people can do horrible things to large quantities of their fellow men and woman. Never.

At this point, we still have no motive. We have no glimpse into the mind of the 64-year-old killer. We don’t know what drove a wealthy, successful man who seemed to be living the good life into that hotel room on the 32nd floor and into infamy.

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We simply don’t know much of anything at this point.

And, frankly, that’s the way people like Dianne Feinstein seem to want it. With so little knowledge about motivations or anything else, all we have is the weapon, so that’s the only thing most people can direct their ire toward. It’s a ghoulish tactic that may well work, simply because there’s nothing else to lash out at.

Yet.

Unfortunately, all that’s going to happen is more bump-fire stocks are going to be sold, and remarkably few people will get rid of their new purchases simply because a law gets passed. Right or wrong, that’s just how it’ll be.

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