Can't say if a lack of visible NRA reps was related to the great displeasure many have with the org over their support for a bump stock ban. But I would bet their reps were prepared for discussions on that topic. They can't be unaware of how many people are pissed off at them. I was only at the show for two days, but I avoided going into the NRA booth. If I'd been approached by an NRA rep, I'd have been unable to resist asking, in the most polite, professional and dispassionate manner, what the proper procedure is for requesting a refund on my life membership, now that the org has sold out gun owners again. No doubt, from there it would have escalated and become less than polite, professional and dispassionate.
ScottD is absolutely right. Wayne LaPierre gets paid seven figures a year and his only priority is to maintain his elite Beltway lobbyist lifestyle, keep his invitations to the cocktail parties and rub shoulders of the other power brokers that rub his. I used to have more hope for Chris Cox, but not anymore.
NRA wants us to believe that it was too dangerous to allow Congress to address bump stocks because they might get something else along with it, like forced background checks on all firearms sales, for example. But there is no way they can make the argument that they wanted to legally preserve bump stocks already purchased. They tell us that they expected that all current owners would be grandfathered by a registration process. However, they can't tell you how that would have happened. Because it couldn't, at least by the regulatory method. The NRA is not stupid, they understand the law. But they are more than willing to distort reality and hope they can convince us that 1 + 1 may equal 3. There is no mechanism for the regulatory process to invent a new category for an accessory such as the bump stock, so the only option was to redefine the statutory definition of a machine gun in such a fashion as to include bump stocks. This is what has been done, and it was the only thing they could try to do, short of maintaining the status quo. The courts will have their say on that in the end. But what we must all be aware of is that, should the argument stick that bump stocks can be legally defined as machine guns, then there is absolutely no way that they can be grandfathered and registered. Can't happen. Why? Because by all definitions they would have to bear the status of post 86 dealer sample machine guns. No civilian without an FFL and SOT could maintain legal possession of such. And since they were all manufactured without paper to begin with, no existing bump stocks would qualify to be papered as post samples after the fact. That is how the rule is applied to unregistered machine guns now. So the NRA is being wholly dishonest with us in its face-saving attempt to say they were really expecting ATF to allow owners to keep their bump stocks. I can believe they are that devious, but I can't believe they are that stupid as to not know what they were doing. At best, they thought they could get away with this sans a big backlash. Surprise!
