Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

The first prosecution involving bump stocks since the Trump administration outlawed the devices failed on Tuesday, November 17, 2020, in Houston, Texas. The prosecution withdrew the possession of the banned device charge after failing to provide evidence beyond reasonable doubt.


Contrarily, the defense was ready to call a retired ATF expert witnesses, Rick Vasquez, to confirm that bump stocks did not convert a semiautomatic firearm into a machine gun. Bump stocks cause a gun to increase the fire rate but fail to meet the statutory threshold definition of a machine gun.


“If something doesn’t meet the definition of a machine gun, it’s not a machine gun,” defense attorney Tom Berg said. “And no amount of wishing or passing rules can change it.”