https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-11/the-bump-stock-millionaire-and-the-las-vegas-massacre...The story of how Cottle successfully navigated America’s gun laws to sell tens of thousands of bump stocks over the past six years says a lot about how permeable those laws are. ...
...he came up with an idea for a device that uses a rifle’s recoil, or bump, against a stiffened trigger finger to approximate automatic fire. He went down to his woodworking shop, and in about two hours he built a crude prototype out of some scrap wood, PVC pipe, and duct tape.
By mid-2010, Cottle was ready to start selling his device, but he first needed clearance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. To comply with federal law, he simply needed to demonstrate that the bump stock was itself not a machine gun. In a letter to the ATF, Slide Fire argued that its product was an accessory to help people with disabilities who had difficulty firing the AR-15, a semiautomatic civilian version of the M-16 military assault rifle. The ATF’s Firearms Technology Branch ruled that the bump stock is a gun part, one that isn’t integral to the functioning of the weapon, and as such excluded it from federal firearm regulations, according to a June 7, 2010, letter from the bureau. Two years later the ATF made a similar determination in reviewing another bump stock maker’s device....
...Within the first year, sales exceeded $10 million, and the company shipped more than 35,000 units. Slide Fire hasn’t disclosed sales since 2011, but considering the growth of the industry, there are likely tens if not hundreds of thousands of bump stocks in gun owners’ hands....
...It wasn’t long before competitors cropped up with their own bump stocks, underpricing Slide Fire and cutting into its sales. Cottle fought back in court, suing at least five companies for allegedly stealing Slide Fire’s patented designs. The fiercest battle was against Miami-based Bump Fire Systems. Its product worked just like Slide Fire’s, only it was “lighter, just as durable, maybe even more so, and a lot cheaper! Instead of $400 for a Slide Fire you can get a Bump Fire for $100,” according to company social media posts filed in court....