Last week, the national gun control group recently rebranded as “Giffords,” released a list of items they say skirt federal firearms laws and threaten the safety of the general public.
The group describes the list as “the next bump stock,” saying each item should be regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934.
“The gun industry has exploited the NFA’s reference to a ‘single function of the trigger’” to market these devices, the group says. Yeah, those pesky laws and their specific wording. If only there were a government agency tasked with evaluating such devices and deciding how they should be regulated.
The ATF has reviewed and ruled on every item on the list.
But it’s not only bump stocks or devices related in some way to increased rates of fire. The group also goes after shotguns capable of holding 12 or more rounds, saying they are “anti-personnel firearms” and should meet the guidelines used for destructive devices. We’re talking about pump guns like the Kel-Tec KSG and the UTAS12, the later of which it pictures above a section about the Armsel Striker shotgun from the 1980s, which is a semi-automatic shotgun that feeds from a detachable revolving 12-round cylinder with a short barrel. It was declared a destructive device by the ATF in 1994. In their eyes, there is no difference.
A regular old 20″barrel pump-action Mossberg 500 loaded with 1.75″ MiniShells can hold more than 12 rounds, just FYI.
Also on the list are AK and AR-style pistols using pistol arm braces and blade stabilizers instead of buttstocks, which, the ATF has ruled, does not place them under NFA regulation.
Lawmakers have introduced three major pieces of gun control legislation in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting.
You can check out the full release here if you want to get all flustered and enraged, but get this…the list also goes after black powder guns in general—yes single-shot firearms that must be loaded with propellant and projectile separately—because they aren’t considered firearms by the ATF.
Specifically, the group uses the recently released SilencerCo Maxim 50 suppressed muzzleloader as an example. The gun was touted early-on as being legal in all 50 states without a tax stamp. This claim has since been reversed in light of several state laws.
“This weapon is designed with a built-in device to suppress its sound. If any other firearm were built with such a device, it would be subject to the NFA as a silencer,” says the group.
The founder of the anti-gun group says the useful devices are named such in order to confuse people.
Hopefully, some future legislation will put a stop to all those nefarious killers and gangbangers committing silent assassinations with suppressed single-shot muzzleloaders. The Maxim 50 goes for about $1,000 by the way.
If anything, the list serves to prove that Giffords is not interested in legislation that might actually help protect innocent people’s lives, but only in attacking the concept of firearms, whether they be shotguns, single-shot muzzleloaders, or the firearms many use for self defense.