How Many Bump Stocks Have Been Turned In By Americans? Another Government Failure

By George Clark

Washington, DC — Democrats were quick to cheer when Trump passed the Bump Stock Ban, as this seemed to imply they were going to get their way on gun control.

But recently released data paints the bump stock buybacks as a total failure.

The final ruling banning bump stocks was passed in December 2018.

The ban took effect on March 26th, 2019.  Between those two dates, a grand total of 582 devices were handed over to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Justice Department records also indicated that there were 98 bump stocks held by the ATF as evidence.

An ATF spokeswoman admitted that the 98 bump stocks held ‘as evidence’ were actually turned over by gun owners who said they wanted them back if the ban was overturned at the last minute.

Since the ban hadn’t gone into effect, the ATF couldn’t destroy them when they were initially turned in.

So out of an estimated 280,000 to 520,000 bump stocks that were owned by American citizens when the ban went into effect, only 582 were turned in.

That means that somewhere between 00.207% and 0.119% were turned in.

While we know that thousands more were destroyed in public events across the country, that doesn’t really save the anti-gun narrative.

Trying to save face, ATF spokeswoman April Langwell tried to paint this abysmal failure in a positive light.

Langwell said that gun owners could have destroyed the devices themselves or turned them in to other law enforcement agencies.

But more realistic people realize that what’s happened is that for all the big talk, there simply isn’t the manpower or the funds to execute this buyback.

And the shortage of funding and manpower represent a lack two things: lack of willingness to comply on the part of gun owners, and a lack of willpower on the part of the anti-gun crowed.

The anti-gun crowd froths at the mouth about the dangers of bump stocks, but then rapidly forgets all about them when the news cycle moves on.

Meanwhile, American gun owners are counting on mass disobedience to give them cover.

How can the ATF possibly round up 250,000 citizens for violating this law?

If this was a trial run for a Beto-style mandatory gun buyback, it’s great news for gun owners.

And it highlights the problem with leftist solutions to problems:  No willpower, no manpower, no money.