Government confiscation of anything, strictly speaking, in a free society should not be allowed. It means that law abiding citizens cannot be trusted with that particular item. Either the government trusts its citizens or it doesn't. Why would citizens not be trustworthy? Could it be, perhaps, that they don't trust the government to do the right thing? Anytime there is mutual distrust you'll find bad laws being written. In this case there is no upside. It would be a bad law and the harbinger of worse to come.

I could actually care less about bump stocks except for the question of, "What's next?" Will they want all my pistol gripped long arms, all the black ones, all my semi-automatic, or all my xx caliber arms? How about the ones with flash suppressors? Exactly what is next?

Did FDR give an exception to those holding "old" gold when he confiscated all gold coins and bullion?
The feds have been out of control since 1860.
Only we can stop them, yet we do nothing but pretend that Trump and the GOP can be trusted.
Lesser evils won't do.
Demonizing the evil Democrats does not change the evil GOP.
They all must go along with the unconstitutional government they have foisted on the people since 1860.

"None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important."

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive."

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."

"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question."

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it."

Ex post facto is most typically used to refer to a criminal statute that punishes actions retroactively, thereby criminalizing conduct that was legal when originally performed. Two clauses in the United States Constitution prohibit ex post facto laws:

Art 1, § 9
This prohibits Congress from passing any laws which apply ex post facto.
Art. 1 § 10.
This prohibits the states from passing any laws which apply ex post facto. Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/ex_po... My question is "How does this not apply?"

I gotta admit to being out of touch with things. First time I heard that they wanted to outlaw bump stocks, I thought they were talking about a new SEC regulation.

You can, with practice and a LOT OF AMMO, make an AK47 fire "full automatic" by hooking your thumb in a belt loop and gently pulling the rifle forward, against your trigger finger. They going to outlaw belt loops???

Having a bump stock is one thing, paying for the ammo is another thing.

It's actually a regulatory issue - full-automatics have been banned for decades. The bump stock was originally submitted to the ATF for regulatory approval as a device that would assist someone with their fingers missing to use an AR15 (how exactly... or what kind of demand there is for that.. ?) There is not something similar for a shotgun or non-sporting rifle.. but that was the claim and it does work for that theoretically as you can bump it back & forth on the peg-finger. No one wants to be mean to the soldier coming back from Iraq missing part of a hand.

However, it certainly does have another purpose, and probably the primary intent if you watch some of the marketing on YouTube - it obviously side-steps the full auto ban. After Las Vegas, certainly the ATF would want to "re-review" the regulatory approval of the device. They would probably allow the company to redesign the product to fit what the submitted purpose was - but without the other feature/aspect.

I think there is something going on that we do not see. Trump takes a long view, and I suspect he is doing something at least diversionary or perhaps brilliant. The ATF is now in the position of defining as a gun something that is not a gun. This is an apparent contradiction. "A bump stock both is and is not a gun, at the same time, and in the same respect. A is not-A."

Over in the other display cases we have Mueller being allowed to continue digging himself in deeper and deeper, and something like 25,000 sealed indictments waiting for any swamp-felons who do not voluntarily self-destruct.

Automatic weapons are not banned, just very heavily restricted.
1934 - $200 transfer tax on machine guns.
1968 - new imports only available to government agencies.
1986 - new US manufactured machine guns can only be sold to government agencies

Sound familiar? Whittle things down bit by bit until there's virtually nothing left.

In 1994 it was evil 'assault weapons', which bombed with the 2004 sunset. Since then, they seize upon anything they can.

If we continue to allow the statists to keep keep getting their way, we will be eventually be asked to surrender our homes, else go to jail. In fact that has already happened. Can you say, intimate domain.

The fact that all firearms must be registered, ammunition is registered to the buyer, use of the firearm must be licensed, permission must be gained to carry the firearm the government already owns and controls the weapons, it just hasn't collected them yet. I am not surprised that Trump is calling for more control and will issue fiat laws to accomplish his goal. I keep pointing out the only difference between him and a liberal is the lie they will tell you to get elected.
I tried explaining this to a coworker and realized he had the look of a deer in the headlights of an oncoming truck. He knew something was behind those lights and although it was described to him he couldn't believe that it was really a truck!

If automatic weapons are not illegal, why are they making people turn in or destroy bump stocks? Do they just go after whatever gun was used in recent news stories, until eventually they take them all?

Letter of the law, huh? Better comply, y'all. We The People ain't someone special like The Evil Hag.