David Codrea:
The Department of Justice anticipates issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would interpret the statutory definition of “machinegun” in the National Firearms Act of 1934 and Gun Control Act of 1968 to clarify whether certain devices, commonly known as “bump fire” stocks, fall within that definition,” a Tuesday Federal Register notice advises. “Before doing so, the Department and ATF need to gather information and comments from the public and industry regarding the nature and scope of the market for these devices.”
The document comment period ends on January 25, the notice continues, providing ways to send them in either by mail or via a submission form. The notice also provides background information, including a summary of claimed statutory authority as well as the ”justification” for the proposed rule, which unsurprisingly relies heavily on last October’s Las Vegas music festival murders to make the case that such controls are needed.
I knew this and had discussed it, but I’m torn on this. On the one hand, I need to submit comments. On the other hand, while I’ve seen ATF responses to my points before (concerning importation of shotguns), I’ve never been given more than cursory, dismissive treatment. I don’t expect better treatment this time around.
I’ll let readers decide for me. I need help if I’m going to submit comments. My readers write better than I do, have more background in legal matters than I do, and can present the case better than I can. I would actually like to submit comments from TCJ rather than just me.
If you have thoughts on this, whether merely single comments, multiple comments, or an actual outline for a response, please respond either in comments to this post or via email. I’d rather it be in comments to this post since that will cause others to think about the issue and add to the information here.
As always with the federal bureaucracy, although we may want to call them names and curse at them, that will cause them to throw away our comments. Keep it civil and make it something that will actually be difficult for them to deal with.