Roger Stone Caught on Tape Discussing Trump’s Plan to Challenge 2024 Election
Self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” Roger Stone was secretly videotaped at Mar-a-Lago during a remarkably candid conversation.
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The Republicans get away with so much despicable action and each time the Dems get pants by the audacity of the attempt. That's how we are here now.
The conservatives will try absolutely anything, up to and including armed insurrection. Now with AR15s, and probably with bumpstocks fitted.
Don't think that it could never happen. The MAGA element love being underestimated.
So, I work in a gun store(part time), if you think bump stocks are unethical, look up(or don’t) a binary trigger. Those, as far as I know, have never been banned, and are far more effective when it comes to trying to attempt to increase fire rate.
To be honest, a lot of gun legislation is really ineffective. The amount of loopholes etc, are kinda insane. If we’re going to talk about gun legislation, it needs to be a helluva lot more than a part ban on “assault style” firearms, until then, it’s just pandering for votes imo.
(Please don’t assume I am a crazy arsenal wielding person. I actually don’t own any firearms at this moment despite my part time occupation.)
I actually looked up the legalisation one time. Congress described a machine gun and gave all the definitions that were forbidden to alter it to make it automatic fire. It was pretty comprehensive, particularly given that it was written in the 80s. However this supreme court said that the magic words 'bump stock' wasn't in the legalisation. Words that didn't even exist until 2003, or thereabouts. The court ignored the legislative text completely.
And I don't believe that you are a gun nut at all. You seem perfectly reasonable and make a good point.
However this supreme court said that the magic words 'bump stock' wasn't in the legalisation. Words that didn't even exist until 2003, or thereabouts. The court ignored the legislative text completely.
This is the text of the NFA that has defined what is a machine gun since 1934:
The term “machine gun” means any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.
I'm not a fan of this SCOTUS, but the bump stock ruling was inline with decades of jurisprudence on the topic and the final opinion was fairly unsurprising as a result. It was honestly less of a gun law ruling and more of an executive regulatory procedure one.
A bump stock does not function by a single action of the trigger and does not meet the statutory definition as a result. The ATF rule banning them got struck down because Congress hadn't authorized the ATF to regulate machine guns beyond that specific statutory definition.
Bump stocks are no more a machine gun than a Gatling gun is under the definition that has existed for nearly a century, and the legal status of the latter has been extremely clear for a very, very long time.
If the goal is to treat them as a regulated item, then Congress needs to pass legislation with language that covers them because saying it was already there is simply incorrect. There is a specificity to the language of the NFA that doesn't cover any number of mechanisms. It's been a deficiency of the law since 1934.
If you want to fix that, that first requires understanding exactly what needs fixing.
That excellent quote of the text you provided spells out that any modifications to a gun that allows any more than a single shot is to be prohibited. A court that is very big on textual meaning, as it purports to be, would readily agree, unless bias is in the driver's seat.
This conservative supreme court despised regulatory agencies . For decades the US government has relied upon such agencies as subject experts and has allowed them to regulate their areas. This court just wants to reverse this common sense and established way of doing things. I might remind you that the bump stock thing wasn't a democrat initiative, but a bipartisan Trump one.
That excellent quote of the text you provided spells out that any modifications to a gun that allows any more than a single shot is to be prohibited.
Incorrect.
It prohibits any conversion to a machine gun. The previous sentence has just defined a machine gun. The "by a single function of the trigger" language is what's critical to this case and you're completely ignoring it. When reading laws, you use words however they're explicitly defined if a definition is provided, not how you think they should be defined or would be used in common speech.
Like I said, Gatling guns are pretty highly analogous. They produce what most people would consider automatic fire. They've also consistently been ruled to not meet the definition of a machine gun going back to at least the 1950s because they don't meet that single function of the trigger requirement.
The solution is to change the text of the law.
However, many states do restrict this. Like mine thankfully. Crank operated firearms, like a Gatling gun, is legal though however federally. Which, yes, scratches the surface of my issues with gun legislation. Don’t get me started on short barreled rifles vs “pistol”.
For a non-american, non-knowledgeable on gun person, I've seen the bump stock discussion a few times this week.
Why is it a discussion? What difference does a bumpstock do?
While many in the US have one or more gun, I would argue most were unaware of bump stocks until the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting. TL;DR, a bump stock uses the recoil of the rifle as a “spring” to help pull the trigger over and over again - effectively behaving like a “machine gun.” As already stated, it does not meet the US legal definition of a machine gun because you’re still firing one round per trigger pull. The bump stock basically makes the trigger pull automatic.
As for why it’s a big debate, read the wiki article. One guy killed A LOT of people pretty quickly using this device to greatly increase his rate of fire. It was a public eye opener for much of the country. So much so, that even Donald f’ing Trump came to the realization that something should be don. He didn’t even really get much push back on it from the right or the NRA. That’s how sobering the massacre was. That said, it happened long enough ago that it’s memory probably isn’t powerful enough for anyone to change the law to ban them and similar mechanisms (see: the binary trigger elsewhere in the comments). If they tried banning them today, the NRA and conservatives would fight it tooth and nail.
Thanks for the context and explanation. It is appreciated.
A bump stock does not function by a single action of the trigger and does not meet the statutory definition as a result. The ATF rule banning them got struck down because Congress hadn’t authorized the ATF to regulate machine guns beyond that specific statutory definition.
They had several cases along these lines involving several agencies, and I feel like people don't understand the underlying legal idea - rule making power belongs to Congress. Federal agencies under the executive branch that have rule making powers receive those powers by Congress delegating it to them in a limited fashion through legislation. Those powers extend only so far as the passed legislation delegates them and no further. Even in cases where it seems like it would be useful, or the name of the agency suggests it would be something in their sphere of influence.
They had several cases along these lines involving several agencies, and I feel like people don’t understand the underlying legal idea - rule making power belongs to Congress. Federal agencies under the executive branch that have rule making powers receive those powers by Congress delegating it to them in a limited fashion through legislation.
Nitpick: rule making power does belong to executive agencies (at least until this SCOTUS decides to reverse Chevron deference). Law-making power resides solely with Congress.
What this means, as you suggest, is that Congress sets up statutory bounds within law, then the responsible executive agencies create rules interpreting them and defining how they'll be enforced. Where cases like this one go wrong is when the agency oversteps the bounds of the law as passed by Congress. At that point, the agency has engaged in creating new law rather than rules, which is why the courts swat them down.
I agree with your overall gist, just feel that's an important distinction to understand the situation.
However this supreme court said that the magic words ‘bump stock’ wasn’t in the legalisation.
A bump stock doesn't make a gun automatic fire, therefore a prohibition on modifications to make a gun automatic fire does not include it. It's a basic "the law says what it says, you don't get to add things you don't like and call them close enough" argument. It's not about the words "bump stock", but that the law prohibits modifications to make a gun automatic and a bump stock does not make a gun automatic, it merely makes a method for firing a semiautomatic gun faster easier to achieve.
Bump firing is basically using the recoil from a shot to bounce your finger off the trigger and then pull the trigger again, which increases the rate of fire. It's even less accurate than automatic fire (because of the way the gun has to literally bounce around), and not quite as fast (but pretty close). You can do it without a bump stock, but it's easier to achieve, more accurate and more comfortable to do with one. The fact that when bump firing you only fire a single round for each function of the trigger makes it not automatic by definition.
The binary triggers mentioned earlier in the thread are basically triggers that will fire both when the trigger is pulled and when it is released, which hypothetically doubles the firing rate of a semiautomatic weapon by not requiring you to release the trigger and pull it again to fire another round. Binary triggers basically come down to an argument of what counts as an "function of the trigger" and whether both pulling and releasing the trigger can count as separate functions of the trigger - if they can then it's not automatic, if they cannot then it is.
So much twaddle and dancing around definitions. You could definitely qualify for a spot on Trump's Supreme Court.
All they are a modification to turn a semiautomatic gun into a full automatic weapon. That's it. All the intricate dribble into the contrary doesn't change that. Water is wet, sky blue, and modifications allowing automatic fire are machine guns.
All they are a modification to turn a semiautomatic gun into a full automatic weapon.
They don't though. And I went into great detail as to what exactly they do and how it works to explain why they don't do that.
An automatic weapon fires more than once per operation of the trigger by definition. Any gun that fires once per operation of the trigger is not automatic by definition.
A bump stock doesn't change that, it makes it easier and more accurate to bump.fire, which is basically using the recoil to bounce your finger off the trigger and back onto it to pull it faster than you otherwise would.
With practice you can bump fire with a regular stock, that doesn't mean all semiautomatic weapons are actually automatic.
Like the binary trigger thing - eventually that will be challenged in the courts and the argument won't be over whether or not the words binary trigger are in the law, but whether or not lifting your finger off the trigger counts as a second operation of the trigger or as part of the previous one because that is what would determine if it fires one or two shots per operation of the trigger and thus whether or not it's legally automatic and whether or not it is controlled as an automatic weapon.
The law doesn't say what you wish it said, and it isn't exactly vague.
You went into a ton of detail, thank you. But it is meaningless under the original definition of the act.
"The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person."
A bump stock modifies the frame of the gun which converts it into a fully automatic weapon. Don't just get stuck on the trigger part of the action. The act covers everything, you just can't cherry pick a single clause and ignore everything else. Otherwise they just might make you into one of Trump's Supreme Court justices.
No, it doesn't. That's what I'm getting at. Look at how they define a machine gun in the act. It requires that the gun fire more than once per operation of the trigger (this is also what it means for a firearm to be automatic). A bump stock facilitates operating the trigger again more quickly, but does not fire more then once per operation of the trigger.
You're not looking at the definition used in the law but deciding that anything that lets you shoot faster counts.
…so who is going to break the news to all the gun nuts using non-binary triggers?
I tend to agree. There's already too many firearms out there (more guns than people) so it won't be all that effective in the short term.
But I think it's more of a thing that will take generations for there to be a change. And yeah it's pandering for votes, but it's also about opening up conversation, which is a step in the direction of a cultural change. A cultural shift away from buying guns for paranoid reasons about protection from "those people" back towards guns being used for hobbies like hunting and target shooting won't be easy to accomplish. But gotta start somewhere.
I just wish if they try something again that we annihilate them all from above like those drone videos. Bump stocks my ass, just turn them into dust. Nothing of value will be lost.
I honestly sometimes think that the democrats (at least some) think like this but are in the closet, other times I think their non-action to the republicans shit actions are just part of the overall plan.
Just be aware that our military is here to protect the constitution.
Meal team 6 ain't about that life. Not even their Dale Gribbliest. It's going to be a horrible mistake. Fool me once...
I guess my point is not that they'll necessarily be successful, it's more that a great many good people won't go home to their families that night.
They weren't successful last time and the Republican Congress welcomed the traitor-in-chief back to DC last week as a hero.
If that's what it takes to remind these inbreds they lost for another hundred years then so be it.
Are they good people if they're taking part in an armed insurrection? What do they think will happen going against the government like that? The government will drop soap bubbles on them? I mean come on how low IQ are they now? I've heard we have gay bombs maybe we have straight bombs we can drop on them because they like the orange man a little too much.
I'm not calling the insurrectionists good people, I'm calling the defenders of the constitution who might catch an AR 15 round good people.
I'm of the opinion they aren't all bad people, just easily mislead and taken advantage of. These people honestly think they are on the right side of history.
I think they'd be more afraid of the gay bombs
Democrats like to removed about Republicans but their platforms are 95% the same. The real enemy is leftists, and they'll take Trump for 4 terms before they ever give an inch to the left.
their platforms are 95% the same.
Economically, yes, but socially, no. That social part matters quite a bit.
Social policies have only been made to matter to create an illusion of two parties. In 1973 Republican and Democratic voters were equally likely to say abortion should be legal.
The US is a corporatocracy and business cares nothing about social matters. Their lobbying efforts fund both sides to ensure that the economic laws meet big business goals no matter who wins.
Ehhhhh it matters less than dems want us to think. Social policy doesn't matter if nobody can make endsmeat. The social policy of dems is just the other wing of our singular corporate party providing the illusion of choice.
Christofascism or fascism with a pride flag, either way we funnel more of our wealth to the 1% and further disenfranchise everybody else.
I agree that both sides are just funneling money into wall street and dont care about the average person, but what do you mean by fasciam with a pride flag? The right has been actively undermining freedoms for 8+ years now. At least 8 years in plain view. What has "the left" even done to resemble any kind of fascism in your eyes?
I used quotes there because i feel its important to keep it clear that the american left in main stage politics is much closer to a center, right leaning party on a grander scale.
Democrats are working on half the shit they claim to be protecting us from as we speak. Your first mistake is seeing Democrats as "left" even with quotes. Democrats are mid right to the Republicans far right.
By "fascism with a pride flag" I mean they're pushing a lot of the policies they said we have to vote D to prevent, and their blue MAGA accepts and defends it because apparently fascism is perfectly fine so long as we pay lip service to gays.
(To be clear, I'm super ongoing with lgbtqia rights, but democrats are already wishy washy on trans rights and will go after gays soon enough so long as we keep rewarding them for sprinting further right.)
Did you read the second point i made? I quite literally said that the dems are center right. Anyways, i havent heard of dems authoring or pushing fascist legislation. I have heard of and live through the dems doing fuck all about it though, so my point of view is that i have 2 options. Fascists that push money to wall street, and do-nothings that push money to wall street. If its my only option ill take it. But fuck biden.
fascism with a pride flag
Wait, what? I've never heard anyone claim that those are in in way similar before. That's a new one for me.
I disagree with the accuracy of what you just said, but 100% agree with your sentiments.