Gun owners, gun-rights groups and even pro-gun lawmakers are becoming increasingly impatient over the lack of guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives concerning the court ruling nearly four weeks ago finding the remaining registration requirement of the National Firearms Act unconstitutional.
In fact, on August 27, U.S. Rep. Tracy Mann, R-Kansas, hit his breaking point and fired off a letter to ATF Director Robert Cekada requesting “clear and timely” guidance on the issue—something that hasn’t been forthcoming so far.
“Law-abiding gun owners and businesses should not be left guessing about what federal law requires of them,” Rep. Mann wrote in the letter. “The Second Amendment is a fundamental constitutional right, and the federal government has a responsibility to provide clear, transparent guidance when a court ruling changes how firearm regulations are enforced. Without clear guidance from ATF, law-abiding Americans and businesses are being left to determine for themselves how this ruling affects their rights, responsibilities, and livelihoods. ATF should work directly with Congress and the firearms community to provide answers and restore certainty as quickly as possible.”
Along with requests from gun groups and lawmakers for guidance and clarity, some have even speculated that the agency is plotting a way to punish lawful gun owners over the court ruling. That apparently was all ATF Director Cekada could take, as it pushed him to X to ask for calm and patience.
“There’s a lot of misinformation circulating about the recent DTX ruling in Jensen v. ATF, including a headline claiming, ‘ATF is Furious and We Are Planning Brutal Revenge on Gun Owners,’” Cekada posted on X. “The source? You guessed it: unnamed anonymous sources. It’s completely FALSE.”
In the post, Cekada added that his agency respects the court’s ruling and the rule of law.
“We are following the order and will not take enforcement action against protected parties inconsistent with that ruling,” he wrote. “We are working diligently on clear guidance. Getting it RIGHT matters more than getting it out fast. That means carefully navigating federal and state laws so that manufacturers, FFLs and law-abiding gun owners aren’t left with legal problems—today or under a future administration.”
Cekada concluded the letter by thanking involved parties for their patience as ATF focuses on developing the guidance.
“It will be posted online as soon as we are done,” he concluded. “The American public and the 2A community deserve facts, NOT clickbait.”
The balance between getting it “right” and getting it “fast” is somewhat of a nonissue at this point. With the ruling made all the way back on August 5, “timely” seems to have already left the building. Hopefully getting it “right,” as Cekada said, won’t take much longer than the nearly four weeks the agency has had to put some guidance in writing.
Gun-rights organizations have been pushing for timely guidance since two weeks after the ruling. Adam Kraut, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation, said in an August 13 news release that while his organization shares the liberty community’s excitement over the permanent injunction, timely guidance is needed.
“With the massive first step of having these elements of the NFA struck down now in hand, we need guidance from the government on all the details that will come with law-abiding Americans seeking to avail themselves of this injunction,” Kraut wrote in an August 13 letter to DOJ and ATF leadership. “To better help educate anyone covered under the ruling, Plaintiffs and their counsel determined the best path forward was to ask the ATF and DOJ directly about how the government plans to comply with the court’s judgment. We’re hoping for a speedy response so the public can better understand how this ruling affects them.”
