Trump administration moves
to ban bump stocks
By Michael Balsamo. December 18th, 2018
The Trump administration Tuesday banned bump stocks, the firearm attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire like machine guns and were used during the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
The regulation gives gun owners until late March to turn in or destroy the devices. After that, it will be illegal to possess them under the same federal laws that prohibit machine guns.
Bump stocks became a focal point of the gun control debate after they were used in October 2017 when a man opened fire from his Las Vegas hotel suite into a crowd at a country music concert, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more.
The regulation was signed Tuesday by Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. It will take effect 90 days after it is published in the Federal Register, which is expected to happen Friday.
Bump stock owners will be required to either destroy them or surrender them to the ATF
....... 
Whatever opinions may be on bump stocks, this is setting a very dangerous precedent and is a disturbing abuse of executive and regulatory authority. What follows this? Perhaps deciding that any semi-automatic firearm that can fire more than a certain number of rounds per minute must be classed as a machine gun - despite the fact that 'machine gun' definition has long been based on what happens with a single pull of a trigger. This ban is not to increase safety - it is the classic 'feel-good' measure to please the masses.
