In 1934, following the era of Al Capone and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, Congress placed restrictions on the sale, purchase and ownership of what it termed “Class 3 weapons,” aka automatic weapons. Fast forward to 2017 Las Vegas – enabled by a device called a bump stock, Stephen Paddock killed 59 people and injured more than 500 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Was Paddock using automatic weapons? Not really, but with a bump stock, a legal AR15 semi-automatic becomes every bit as lethal as the Tommy guns of the roaring twenties.

How did the modern bump stock come about? Ask its developer Jeremiah Cottle of Moran, TX. [from an article on Tactical Life.com]

I’ve been a recreational shooter my entire life, and I’ve always enjoyed shooting full-auto weapons. At the same time, purchasing a Class 3 firearm is outrageously expensive, not to mention it requires a mountain of paperwork sure to give you life-threatening paper cuts. I had bump fired in the past, but it was completely uncontrollable, unsafe and unusable. I wanted to find a way to change that, to make bump firing safer and more controlled.

So, I thought about it, and I prayed about it. Ultimately, I decided to go for it. I used all of my savings from the military, sold everything in my house that wasn’t nailed down and started making 3D-printed models and solving problems. Finally, I sent the stock to the BATFE [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] when I had a design that was close to being commercially ready. I was so happy when I got the word that it was approved.

Cottle’s company, Slide Fire is the principal manufacturer of the bump stock. Its promotional videos are chilling. Have a look at their showpiece.

How does a bump stock get past Federal regulators? The approval letter from BATFE explains

“The stock has no automatically functioning mechanical parts or springs and performs no automatic mechanical functions when installed … Accordingly, we find that the ‘bump-stock’ is a firearm part and is not regulated as a firearm under the Gun Control Act or the National Firearms Act.”

More from Jeremiah Cottle:

Some people like drag racing, some people like skiing and some people, like me, love full-auto. Unfortunately, the average recreational shooter doesn’t have access to a Class 3 firearm of their very own—they’re just expensive and impractical, like buying your own personal golf-cart hovercraft. I mean, if you can afford it, why not? For everyone else, Slide Fire brings shooters the same full-auto experience but without having to take out a second mortgage on their home.

I wonder how much Cottle loves full-auto in light of what happened in Las Vegas. Maybe the incident didn’t affect him. According to Slide Fire’s video, it’s every man’s birthright, freedom unleashed. But right now @SlidefireSol is getting slammed on Twitter and rightly so.

One of Slide Fire’s videos begins with a quote it says is from George Washington [it is actually a misquote from George Washington Carver], “When you can do common things in uncommon ways, you will command the attention of the world.” Sad to say, in this case, the idea is very true.

The post Rapid fire weapons – every man’s birthright? appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Watching the expansive media coverage of the right-wing Tea Partiers’ meeting in February, I’m wondering if a similar, lefty meeting would receive equal attention. Judging from the media blitz garnered by the Tea Partiers, a being landing on Earth from Mars might get the impression that America’s only political agenda is that of the far-right wing of the Republican spectrum.

So, I started searching around for a national meeting of progressive Democrats that I could attend, where we could draw attention to our ideas about social and economic justice, and demonstrate that there is, in fact, support in America for them.

What I found, of course, is Netroots Nation, an annual convention of progressive bloggers, scheduled for July 22-25, 2010.

The fifth annual gathering of the Netroots (formerly known as the YearlyKos Convention) will be held July 22-25 at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Netroots Nation 2010 will include panels led by national and international experts; identity, issue and regional caucuses; prominent political, issue and policy-oriented speakers; a progressive film screening series; and the most concentrated gathering of progressive bloggers to date.

That’s all I found. It’s not exactly parallel to the Tea Baggers convention, it doesn’t have as catchy and easily identifiable name, and it falls far short of a national progressive convention. But it’s something. And I hope that this year’s organizers can be as effective as the Tea Party folks in getting media coverage. We need to be louder and prouder, and not afraid to speak up and call out the hypocrisy of the right when see it. I truly believe that America does support the progressive agenda—without even knowing it. But that’s a different blog post…

My question is: Did Netroots really have to choose Las Vegas for this year’s meeting? Let’s review: The Tea Party meets in Nashville, a city with a down-home, god-bless-the-USA, country- music image. Netroots goes to Vegas, the belly of the profligate, self-indulgent, risk-taking beast. The Netroots Nation website justifies Las Vegas as the home of their first efforts to combat right-wing anti-immigration policies, and a fitting place to come home to for their fifth convention. They have a point. But if the news media actually show up, Las Vegas could turn out to be a very unfortunate choice, easy fodder for satire, and a way of undermining Netroots Nation’s own message. I can already imagine a Daily Show segment poking fun at it.

The post Tea Party (Nashville). Netroots (Las Vegas) appeared first on Occasional Planet.