On Tuesday Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Dave Trott (D-MI) bucked NRA opposition and introduced gun control for bump stocks.
Fitzpatrick put out a press release announcing the gun control and even adopted gun controllers’ linguistic phraseology of a bump stock “loophole” to push the new gun laws.
Moreover, the gun control legislation is titled Closing the Bump Stock Loophole Act.
The press release explains that the gun control has a total of four sponsors: two Republicans and two Democrats. The Democrats are Reps. Dan Kildee (D-MI) and Dina Titus (D-NV). The new gun control “would allow the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to immediately regulate bump stocks and functionally equivalent devices that substantially increase the rate of fire of a firearm in the same way it regulates machine guns and suppressors. The registration process for anyone in possession of or purchasing bump stock devices would include a rigorous background check, fingerprinting and a $200 registration fee.”
In other words, just as voters are on the verge of securing the elimination of a $200 federal tax for suppressors via the Hearing Protection Act, Fitzpatrick, Trott, and their Democratic colleagues are trying to place federal taxes on other firearm accessories.
But the greatest danger from Fitzpatrick and Trott’s gun control is its insidious nature. After all, it already covers more than bump stocks inasmuch as it covers “bump stocks and functionally equivalent devices.”
Fitzpatrick said, “We must do everything in our power to prevent the kind of evil we see in horrifying incidents like the Las Vegas shootings, and resolve as a nation to confront this evil through meaningful, bipartisan legislative action and an ongoing commitment to keep our communities safe from gun violence.”
Missing from his message was any recognition that punishing all gun owners or all bump stock owners for the crime of one bump stock owner is the kind of action Americans are accustomed to seeing from Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Yet Fitzpatrick’s gun control is an even greater affront to liberty for the simple reason that it comes at a time when Democrats have backed off gun control for fear of losing big in the 2018 midterm elections.
Schumer is especially worried about the danger his party faces by supporting gun control, yet Fitzpatrick and Trott are pushing more gun laws.
The NRA issued its response to Fitzpatrick and Trott’s gun control push, reminding Twitter followers that the gun rights group “opposes” the new gun control bill.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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