Americans able to buy deadly ‘gangster weapons’ again as lobbying forces key concession from Trump officials

Americans able to buy deadly ‘gangster weapons’ again as lobbying forces key concession from Trump officials

US citizens are free once more to buy some of the country’s most deadly firearms and gun accessories, after relentless lobbying by the gun industry and Republican politicians forced a concession from the Trump administration under the federal government shutdown.

As of this week, gun owners will be able to restart purchases of some of the most highly regulated weapons in the US, with the return to work of federal employees responsible for regulating the items now reclassified as “essential”. They include silencers, short-barreled rifles and vintage machine-guns produced before 1986.

Sales of those items had ground to a halt under the shutdown after federal examiners charged with regulating the purchases were furloughed. The examiners formed part of the NFA division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

  • anon6789@lemmy.world
    12·
    19 hours ago

    The temporary block of sales of these heavily controlled firearms provoked a fierce backlash from industry groups and members of Congress. While sales of semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and handguns have proceeded untouched by the government shutdown, and background checks have proceeded as normal, lobbyists argued that the impediment to sales of silencers, pre-1986 machine guns and short-barreled rifles was a violation of Americans’ second amendment rights.

    Regular firearm purchases have remained unaffected. The “problem” is that rich people’s toys were being held up. This is about the $200 permission slip you need from the gov to buy full auto or suppressors that was not being processed due to the shutdown. Suppressors are often more than the actual gun to put it on, and the cheapest full auto guns I saw on the first 2 sites that came up started at $10,000.

    On 16 October, the firearm industry trade association, the NSSF, wrote to the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, protesting that “a right delayed is a right denied”.

    Just like for Virginia Giuffre, right? What a POS…