Guns Owners of America Files Suit Over Federal Bump Stock Ban

A pro-gun group on Wednesday joined forces with a popular YouTube gun blogger to take the federal government to court over a pending ban on bump stocks.

Gun Owners of America, in conjunction with the Virginia Citizens Defense League and bump stock owner Tim Harmsen– who helms the Military Arms Channel– filed suit in a Michigan federal court this week just after the final Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rule outlawing the devices was published. Set to take effect in March 2019, the ban will establish a prohibition on bump stocks without a path to legal ownership for those currently in circulation and make possession a felony.

The 28-page filing points out that, going as far back as the Akins Accelerator in 2002, federal regulators have consistently charted the same course when it came to bump stocks and similar devices sent to their Firearm Technology Industry Services Branch to review for legality, holding that each, in turn, was not a machine gun. The final rule posted on Wednesday is an about-face, equating a device that “mimics automatic fire” on a semi-automatic firearm with actual automatic fire.

“ATF tossed its entire 17-year history with bump stocks into the trash bin — overriding the considered judgment of at least one ATF Director, four Assistant Directors, and five Chiefs and one Acting Chief of the Firearms Technology Industry Services Branch,” says the complaint, holding “The final rule attempts to discredit the agency’s own work.”