As is well documented in the gun blogosphere a loophole is anything legal that our opponents don’t like. The latest is the bullet button. For those outside of the People’s Republic of California, California’s assault weapons ban defines a magazine as detachable if it cannot be removed, except through use of a tool. The California AG ruled that a punch or screwdriver counts as a tool. Solution? Put a recessed button on the AR magazine release that can’t be depressed except by action of punching it with a tool, or the tip of a loaded cartridge. If a magazine is not legally “detachable,” then it can’t be an assault weapon, no matter how many evil and ugly features you put on it.
“If the bullet button assault weapon is allowed to come into the state then the California assault weapons ban basically doesn’t exist any more,†said Josh Sugarmann with the Violence Policy Center.
Yes, Josh, that’s the whole idea. Your ban is a sham and always has been. We just exposed it as a sham, and engineered around it.
Actually, the AG hasn’t ruled on anything. The Bullet Button exemption comes from the statute defining a “detachable magazine”.
CCR 11 s 5469(b)
“Detachable magazine” means any ammunition feeding device that can be removed readily from the firearm with neither disassembly of the firearm action nr use of a tool being required. A bullet or ammunition cartridge is considered a tool.
Bullet Buttons have been appearing on California semi-auto rifles for about a decade now. CBS San Francisco ran a PSH segment on them about 5 years ago, too.
jdberger has it right and as usual Josh is late to the party and blind-drunk after a few too many Sad Panda tequilas. Also the AG doesn’t get to re-define what “is” is, or what or how a magazine is or works.
I demonstrated this at the Gunblogger Rendezvous a couple years back and they make them now for everything, from AK’s to Ar’s to whatever you have.
The reporting there was also just… horrible.
I especially like how CBS-5 reporters were shocked (shocked!) to find that you can buy guns that are in compliance with state law, and that the Police won’t stop that…
So did I!
Just what will those conniving citizens think up next?!? Officer, that young man there, with his valid ID, just bought some alcohol at a liquor store!!!11!!!11! Why won’t you stop him?
Oh, the humanity!
Legal in Chicago now thanks to illinoiscarry.com member joeyl.
I actually find this to be an extremely rare proper use of the word “loophole†by them. A loophole means the intent of the law is not met due to the literal language of the law. It usually involves some creativity on part of those who want to get around it. In this case, the CA lawmakers had every intention of making it so that no one outside of law enforcement can procure an AR-15 or AK pattern gun after its passage. The thinkers of the gun industry looked at the bill and keyed in on the “detachable magazine†language (as well as all the other features too- leading to such products as the “monster man grip†and that god-awful looking stock that looks like a drunken love child between an AR and a FN-P90). I am sure the gun-banners would love to still call it detachable, but then so is a 5rd K98 Mauser mag (so long as you have a screwdriver). It does speak volumes about how frivolous AWBs are. They can’t get it through their heads that ARs and AKs are nothing special and the only way to close the “loophole†is to ban all semi-automatics.
Still, some of their intent is still met in that it is harder to reload with a bullet button. When will we hear about the “stripper assault-clip loophole�
Yeah, eliminating the stripper-clip loophole would make my M1903 Springfield an assault rifle.
When I heard about the “bullet button”, I thought it was some sort of button that would be on a ring or something, that you could use to pop out a magazine, as though it were a detachable one. I didn’t expect it to be “Oh, noes!!! You could use a bullet to detach the magazine!!!11!!1! The world’s going to end!”
And, as typical, Sugarman is fearful of the blood in the streets that isn’t going to happen because of this, and hasn’t been happening since the “workaround” to the law has been in effect, these past ten years or so.
“I thought it was some sort of button that would be on a ring or something, that you could use to pop out a magazine, as though it were a detachable one.”
That’s the point. I DO have a ring with a bump on it. I wear it on my middle finger. Some people also add rivets to gloves to punch the mag release. It is technically a tool and is almost as good as a traditional detachable mag. Before bullet buttons, Kalis had to settle for pinned & welded magazines. ARs were loaded by pulling the rear takedown pin and pushing rounds into the mag through the open gun.
As a note, we can have detachable mags as long as the rifle doesn’t have any ‘evil’ features like a pistol grip, tele-stock, threaded barrel, flash hider, etc. Any kind of grenade launcher is right out, such as the 22mm muzzle on a Yugo 59/66. However, rimfire rifles are exempt from needing to have a bullet button or be featureless. They can legally have a pistol grip and let the mag drop free. Tubular hi-cap magazines are legal on rimfires and lever actions. Handguns are a whole different game. We can NOT have a threaded barrel on a semi-auto handgun with a detachable mag, even rimfires.
Can I just say that I love causing trouble?
Note that CA DOJ has opined under oath in a Federal Court filing that the Bullet Button when properly installed does take an AR or AK out of the definition of detachable.
-Gene
The sonofabitch rapist-felon primary suspect in a murder case with the illegal handgun and illegal SKS who killed four cops in Oakland didn’t need or use a namby-pamby “bullet button” despite their ready availability.