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1 (April 11, 2018)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthzzaem0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ______ aResearch Service ATF's Ability to Regulate Bump Stocks Sarah Herman Peck Legislative Attorney April 11, 2018 UPDATE: Following the publication of this Sidebar, the Justice Department's Bureau ofAlcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) published a notice of proposed rulemaking declaring its intention to clarify, through regulation, that 'bump fire'stocks, slide-fire devices, and devices with certain similar characteristics (bump-stock-type devices) are 'machineguns ' under the National Firearms Act (NFA) and the Gun Control Act (GCA). In doing so, ATF proposes to interpret three terms in the GCA and the NFA: (1) single function of the trigger; (2) automatically; and (3) machinegun. Single function of the trigger will be defined as single pull of the trigger. Automatically will mean as the result of a self-acting or self-regulating mechanism that allows the firing of multiple rounds through a single pull of the trigger. And machinegun will include a device that allows semiautomatic firearms to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger by harnessing the recoil energy of the semiautomatic firearm to which it is affixed so that the trigger resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter (commonly known as bump- stock-type devices). The public comment period closes June 27, 2018. The original Sidebar postfrom March 22, 2018 providing background on the proposed rule is below. Congressional interest in the legal framework for regulating bump stock devices abounded after authorities discovered that the perpetrator of the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, had attached to his semiautomatic firearms an accessory that allowed his rifles to effectively mimic the firing capabilities of a fully automatic weapon. (These firearm accessories are commonly called bump-fire, slide-fire, or bump-stock devices, and more information on how they function can be found in this CRS Insight by William J. Krouse.) One pertinent question involves the degree to which the Department of Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) may regulate, and potentially proscribe, the sale and possession of such devices under existing law. The answer to this question largely depends on whether a bump-stock device reasonably can be construed as falling under the federal statutory definition of a machinegun. Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov LSB10103 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Conaress

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