The Daily Caller is reporting that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is developing a new rule “that could effectively ban the sale of firearms between private individuals.”
The report points to a Jan. 31 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) records request filed by Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research (EMPOWR) to the ATF. EMPOWR describes itself as a “nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to enhancing independent oversight of government and corporate wrongdoing.”
According to an EMPOWR announcement, the group has learned from unidentified sources that ATF has
drafted a 1,300-page document which attempts to justify the rule.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and ATF Director Steven Dettelbach, EMPOWR President Tristan Leavitt wrote, “Such an expansive rule that treats all private citizens the same as federal firearms licensees would circumvent the separation of powers in the Constitution, which grants ‘all legislative Powers’ to Congress while requiring that the President ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.’ To the extent such a rule prevents the private sale of firearms, it would also clearly violate the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which declares that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
“On March 14, 2023,” Leavitt wrote, “President Joseph Biden issued Executive Order 14092, which required that the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) “clarify the definition of who is engaged in the business of dealing in firearms, and thus required to become Federal firearms licensees (FFLs), in order to increase compliance with the Federal background check requirement for firearm sales.” President Biden announced the purpose of the executive order was to ‘move us as close as we can to universal background checks without new legislation.’
“The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) subsequently submitted a proposed rulemaking to the Department of Justice, which Attorney General Merrick Garland approved on August 30, 2023,” the letter continues. “The draft rule was open for comments from September 8 to December 8, 2023. The draft rule received immense comment and was interpreted by many to require that any private citizen who sells even a single firearm online might be required to register as an FFL—despite clear language in law since 1986 that the term “engaged in the business” of selling firearms “shall not include a person who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms.”
According to Leavitt, “The lessons of the Ruby Ridge and Waco standoffs should make clear that attempting to enforce such an expansive regulation could endanger countless ATF field agents who are forced to serve as the face of the Biden Administration in going after private firearms owners for constitutionally-protected firearms sales.”
EMPOWR is requesting the following:
- All emails to or from ATF Senior Policy Counsel Eric Epstein which include the terms “ban,” “private sale,” “universal background,” and “gun control.”
- Any and all records containing communications between DOJ and ATF regarding the implementation of Executive Order 14092.
- Any and all records containing communications between DOJ or ATF and the White House regarding the development and/or implementation of Executive Order 14092.
- Any and all records containing communications between DOJ and ATF referring or relating to regulating or banning the sale of firearms between private individuals.
- Any and all records containing communications between DOJ or ATF and the White House referring or relating to regulating or banning the sale of firearms between private individuals.
The Biden administration has pushed increasingly restrictive gun control policies since the day Joe Biden took office in January 2021. The extent of his ambition was not clearly realized until he appeared at a CNN Townhall program during which he acknowledged not only trying to stop sales of so-called “assault rifles” but also 9mm-caliber pistols, which may be the most popular type of handgun used today by millions of armed private citizens for personal protection.
The Second Amendment Foundation has used a video clip of that statement in a series of stinging advertisements on several cable networks over the past two-plus years to alert its members and supporters, and American gun owners, about Biden’s intentions, which the White House cannot deny since the clip shows Biden saying so.
