Update: On June 14, 2024, The Blaze reported that the Supreme Court has struck down Trump’s unconstitutional bump stock ban on the grounds that ATF officials are not legislators and cannot write new laws.
In July of 2018, The Liberty Block published an article titled ‘5 Bad Things That Trump Has Done’. We wrote an article describing 5 good things that Trump did, too. As you may already know, The Liberty Block is one of the most balanced and honest publications online, though we do not claim to be politically neutral. As the article mentions, one of Trump’s worst actions was his support for banning bump stocks and his support for “red flag laws” (read: gun confiscation).
After the Las Vegas Massacre, during which a shooter allegedly used a bump stock to increase the rate of fire of his semi-automatic rifle, President Trump announced that he directed the ATF (the federal government’s bureau that largely controls firearm laws) to reclassify bump stocks in a manner that would prohibit them. At the time, bump stocks were not regulated at all, since they were not considered firearms. Bump stocks are just a piece of plastic, after all.
On December 18th, numerous outlets reported that the ATF (which is part of the US Department of Justice) has officially banned bump stocks by reclassifying them as machine guns. Machine guns (fully automatic firearms) are generally illegal in the US, and those produced after 1986 cannot be imported to the US (other than for government use).
As per the DOJ, Americans will have 90 days to destroy or surrender their bump stocks to the ATF. For the first time in US history, a firearm accessory has become illegal. Just like the 1986 law mentioned above, this gun control act was implemented by a Republican government.
The banning of a firearms accessory in response to a tragedy creates a horrific and frightening precedent for future gun rights. What will get banned next? The case can be made that ANY accessory to any firearm makes it “more dangerous”. Here are some examples:
- Rifle scopes? They help you engage targets with greater accuracy at long distances – nobody is hitting anything at 1,000 yards with iron sights, but a good optic enables hunters nationwide to take deer at 1,000 yards with a number of different cartridges.
- Red-dot sights? They enable much quicker close-quarters target acquisition – let’s ban those.
- Night sights on handguns? Obviously, they make low-light target acquisition easier, theoretically making a shooter more dangerous at night – ban those.
- Adjustable triggers? Well, a 4-lb trigger is easier to fire than an 8-lb trigger, and less likely to be pulled too much, so definitely more dangerous – let’s establish legislation that all triggers require a 12-lb trigger-pull.
- Picatinny rails? They enable you to add all those terrifying accessories, like chainsaw bayonets – we should definitely ban those, and let’s ban M-LOK & KeyMod rail systems as well.
Let’s prohibit civilians from owning any weapons! Let’s ban all muzzle devices, since they’re used to reduce recoil or conceal muzzle-flash. Let’s ban all rifle stocks, because shooting with a rifle properly tucked is infinitely more accurate than attempting to shoot a rifle from the hip. Let’s ban purchases of more than 20 rounds of ammunition at a time. Let’s ban the ownership of more than any three firearms at once.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself “Wow, this man is crazy, and that’s all naught but conspiratorial madness!”; to this I say, take a look around you. Look at states like NY, CA, and NJ, the latter of which recently instituted a ban on ALL magazines over 10-rounds, with no grandfather clause – if you own a 15-round magazine for any gun at all, you have become a felon overnight. A whole slew of firearms are already banned, and that progression was slow; now that the federal war on accessories has begun, the stripping of our natural rights will become more rapid. All of these bans, technically speaking, would make it more difficult for a madman to legally kill many people at once….unless of course the person committing premeditated mass murder for some reason feels inclined to disobey codified law, which I can’t possibly imagine a homicidal maniac would ever consider.
The fact is, firearms and firearm accessories are built purposefully, to make firearms better at what firearms are for. A tremendous amount of this technology was created by and/or for the United States military for precisely that reason. And, make no mistake, the purpose of the Second Amendment was primarily for the common defense against the federal government. Allow me to provide some of the basis for that fact, which is constantly, hawkishly derided by authoritarians as being a myth:
- “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops.”
– Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787
- “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined…. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.”
– Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778
- “What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty …. Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.”
– Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress 750, August 17, 1789
- “I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.”
– George Mason, Address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 4, 1788
That’s but a sampling of the evidence for the incontrovertible fact that the primary reason for the existence of the Second Amendment is to violently, forcibly revolt against a federal government that has usurped powers beyond those explicitly granted in the US Constitution. Those are all the words of men who were instrumental in creating the United States of America. Denial of this evident and obvious fact is a delusion to a degree that is actively extremely dangerous.
Like so many other gun laws, the prohibition of bump stocks will hardly decrease the amount of ‘bump firing’ that occurs in the US. Since bump firing is just a simple physics trick which uses recoil and a simple technique and a device to keep the trigger held to the rear (rubber band, carabiner, stick, finger, etc.) Those who want to bump fire for fun or to kill a large number of people will continue to do so well beyond 90 days from today. This law (which was created by a bureaucratic agency comprised of unelected regulators and politicians who are not accountable and who have ZERO constitutional authority to create laws) was largely passed so that politicians like Trump and the ATF could boast about ‘doing something’ to save lives. Actually, if confiscation attempts do occur, this regulation will be responsible for many deaths.
Another takeaway from today’s announcement is that President Trump is (obviously) not pro-freedom and generally has no principles or firm convictions. Additionally, Trump can easily be swayed by a tragedy (in a nation consisting of 320 million people, various tragedies inevitably happen on a regular basis) to abandon libertarian principles and violate the US Constitution (not to mention the natural right to self defense and the natural right to property) in the name of ‘public safety’. Understanding that this president was chosen by the people of the US, and that nearly everyone who did not vote for him did vote for Hillary Clinton will go a long way towards helping you understand that this nation has a negligible amount of pro-freedom individuals remaining. Trump is the most pro-freedom president of the past century, and he has no firm beliefs that are based on the Constitution or liberty. If you want freedom, you should consider looking elsewhere.
This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Liberty Block or any of its members. We welcome all forms of serious feedback and debate.
