The Republican leader of the Congressional Second Amendment Caucus says he’s disappointed in President Trump’s plan to regulate bump stocks and support legislation to boost federal background checks.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has argued that even the Obama administration couldn’t find a way to regulate bump stocks, which are an accessory that lets a semi-automatic weapon fire at a similar rate to an automatic weapon. He says current law doesn’t address bump stocks, which means the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives doesn’t have the authority to regulate them.
“The Obama administration acknowledged they lacked the constitutional or statutory authority to ban bump stocks, so President Trump’s memo is disappointing,” Massie told the Washington Examiner.
“What’s more worrisome for gun owners, though, is the president’s deputy press secretary signaled support for the trojan-horse ‘Fix NICS’ bill that was sneaked into the House reciprocity bill last year,” Massie said.
That’s a reference to legislation the House passed in December that would require federal agencies to report information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System that might disqualify people from gun ownership.
The bill, which Trump has said he can support, would also create incentives and penalties aimed at requiring state and local agencies to report that information.
The bipartisan Fix NICS bill was proposed after the Air Force admitted last year it didn’t forward information that might have prevented a man who killed 26 people in a Texas church shooting from owning a gun.
Last week, the FBI admitted it didn’t follow the usual protocol of reporting the warning signs it had picked up about the Florida school shooter.
