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Will Bump Stock Regs Be Held Hostage to Trump’s Deregulation Agenda?

Feb. 21, 2018

Will Bump Stock Regs Be Held Hostage to Trump’s Deregulation Agenda?

Statement From Amit Narang, Regulatory Policy Advocate, Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division

If President Donald Trump is serious about preventing gun violence, he should exempt the bump stock limits he is directing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to put in place from his ‘One-In, Two-Out’ executive order that forces agencies to rescind two or more regulatory protections before adopting a new one. There is simply no reason to hold bump stock regulations hostage while DOJ searches for other rules to cut.

The administration has found that several forthcoming gun safety regulations from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives are subject to the executive order and therefore cannot be adopted unless offset by deregulatory actions.

This example illustrates the cruel, backward logic of Trump’s executive order: In this instance, it makes protecting Americans from gun massacres contingent on the deregulatory demands of corporations. It’s a clear example of how putting corporations first endangers Americans.

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