The NRA wants to trade bumpstocks for Nat. Recip. CCW. That's where this is heading.
And Nat. Recip. has been a much higher legislative priority for the NRA than the HPA has ever been. They want it to override all the no-issue and may-issue states that are de-facto no-issue right now, and scare the hell out of them. Not a terrible strategy since I think the CCW fight that's been going on state by state since the 80's has done a lot for the pro-gun side in the minds of the unwashed middle ground. When the anti's have all the "blood in the streets" predictions, and then...
nothing ever happens, it normalizes guns further and makes the anti's look like the fearmongers they are.
And also, it's politically astute, because
for the first time, a gun control "compromise"
will be an actual compromise. For far too long "Compromise" has been that the Anti's want it all, but will settle for only taking some. (figuring they'll come back for it later) A false definition. The true definition of compromise is where both sides either get something they want, or both agree to give up something they want, that the other does not want them to have.
Such a precedent could go a long way to preventing the legislative anti-gun ratchet effect.
Honestly, I'm "meh" on the whole thing. I don't care a whit about bumpstocks. They're shoddy Tapcof'ery gimmicks for the most part. (I know there's some newer ones that look/feel better, but still...) And I feel guilty for that, because I know I shouldn't care/not care over a firearm category just because I myself don't enjoy it. That's trampling on Fudd territory. However, it is what it is. I have to be honest about my feelings.
The other reason I'm "meh" on this is that with Nat. Recip. I fear it'll be a paper tiger, like the FOPA traveler protections. NYC and NJ has been happy to arrest and confine travelers who were simply unfortunate to change planes in LaGuardia or Newark etc. with an otherwise legally checked handgun that had already gone through the TSA once. If FOPA's traveler protections can't be used as a "get outta jail card" within 24 hours... it's worthless IMO. Even with a "win" on Nat. Recip., I'm sure it'll take DECADES of court fights to force all the no-issue states and areas into issuing. Call it what it is, not "real" Nat. Recip., just a bill that will eventually give us standing in court. And with the wins in D.C. and Chicago lately, And Trump packing the Fed. Judiciary, and all the aging die-offs being skewed to the left on the SCOTUS, I think that's a fight we'll eventually win even without a Federal Nat. Recip. bill.
What we SHOULD be "trading" bumpfire stocks away for, is for them to become NFA regulated machine guns. So they have the extra paperwork, the extra background check, the huge waiting period, and the $200 tax. That's some pretty stringent "gun control" ain't it? If you say so the right way, it makes it hard for Democrats to oppose such strict regulation... Of course, to facilitate this, we'd have to do away with the Hughes Amendment and the '86 machine gun freeze.
