The pro-gun rights group Gun Owners of America is calling out the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives over what GOA calls a “fake rollback” of the Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” rule.
GOA has been battling the Trump Administration Department of Justice over the rule ever since President Donald Trump took office for his second term. And while it looked like the DOJ had decided to do away with the rule in recent proposed rulemaking, GOA says there’s more to the story.
GOA: The replacement rule keeps the Biden framework in place
“That rule tried to twist the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to impose backdoor universal background checks by redefining who counts as a ‘dealer,'” GOA said in a recent news release on the rule. “Now, ATF has proposed a replacement rule that claims to ‘rescind’ the Biden rule, but in reality keeps key parts of its legal framework in place and leaves gun owners exposed.”
Your firearms list could still be used against you
According to GOA, under the current proposal, ATF says it will drop some of Biden’s presumptions and narrow definitions, but it openly states that “some sections of the Biden rule will be retained.”
“ATF still treats everyday behavior by gun owners as suspicious: keeping a simple list of your firearms, reselling the same model within a short window, or even just offering to sell a firearm can be used as evidence that you are ‘engaged in the business’ without a license,” GOA explained in the release. “The agency continues to push the idea that intent alone can be enough evidence to prosecute law-abiding gun owners as illegal firearms traffickers, despite the court’s ruling and the clear limits Congress placed in law.”
Consequently, GOA said, the ATF cannot keep the Biden-era “Engaged in the Business” framework on the books.
“The rule must be rescinded in its entirety,” GOA wrote.
GOA is giving gun owners a way to speak up
In the news release, GOA provides an opportunity for members and other interested gun owners to copy a letter to the ATF and to easily and quickly send it to the agency.
The letter states: “These regulations are simply a recycled version of the Biden Administration’s effort to impose backdoor universal background checks through executive action rather than legislation. That represents a clear breach of trust with America’s law-abiding gun owners.”
“ATF should withdraw this proposal and issue a new rule that faithfully follows the plain language of federal law, respects the rights of law-abiding gun owners, and clearly rejects the flawed legal theories that federal courts have already rejected,” the letter concludes.
GOA isn’t the only gun-rights group unhappy with the pace of ATF reforms
GOA’s beef with the DOJ over the “Engaged in the Business” rule isn’t the first time a gun-rights organization has spoken out in opposition to the ATF “reforms,” which mostly favor Second Amendment rights. In May, the pro-gun organization Texas Gun Rights warned that the reforms were “limited regulatory relief” rather than “meaningful constitutional restoration.”
“The ATF slightly reducing burdens that should never have existed in the first place is not some grand act of generosity,” TGR President Chris McNutt said at the time. “The Second Amendment does not require Americans to ask the federal government for permission before purchasing firearms.”
Comments now become the record for future legal challenges
Ultimately, GOA said that gun owners have a critical opportunity to speak up now and stop the rule.
“If ATF doesn’t listen, these comments build the record that will be used in future legal challenges,” GOA concluded. “Let ATF know that gun owners expect real change, not a recycled version of Biden’s universal background check rule.”
Ya like that pic of Biden trying to fire an imaginary flintlock?
Biden: “Jill, if someone breaks in just fire the shotgun through the door.”
Jill: “Ok, Joe. This is the trigger, right?”
News next day: “Biden dead due to tragic gun violence accident. Shot through door.”
Democrat congress: “Ban assault weapons now! This would not have happened if we had banned assault weapons!”
Exclusive Interview: The New ATF Director Speaks Directly to Gun Owners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4FgEX4cLnk
[note: The video is 1 hour and 38 minutes long. They start explaining their view and changes for ‘in the business’ about 45 minutes in. But its got more stuff in it so listen to the whole video.]
PRESIDENT TRUMP MAKES MAJOR 2A ANNOUNCEMENT ON INDEPENDENCE DAY!
President Trump just made a major statement about the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Mark Smith, Four Boxes Diner, discusses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHXUXnUYxns
The Truth is… TRUMP COUKD STEP IN WITH AN EXECUTIVE ORDER AND END ALL THE ATF UNCONSTITUTIONAL RULES IF HE WANTS TO.. TRUMP HAS NOT SHOWN ANY ACTION IN THIS REGARD.. TRUMP IS JUST TALKING..
Yes, the president can issue executive orders to direct federal agencies to rescind or modify their rules. IF…those rules are not based in law that congress passed. And there in lies the issue, modifying or rescinding rules follows certain procedures in law to decide if they can be modified or rescinded plus what congress intended for a law upon which a rule is based also needs to be considered. So even if Trump ordered it in an executive order, the law still has to be considered as to if that modification or rescinding would contravene the law as intended by congress.
So its not as simple as using the stoke of a pen with an executive order to remove or modify a rule. If Trump did that, tried to do that, he would be no better than Joe Biden who did it and ATF modified or changed rules in a manner that was never intended by congress when the law, upon which a rule was based, was passed. Or in other words Biden intentionally usurped the power of congress and created illegal and unconstitutional defacto-law. Trump, thankfully, is not the lawless guy Biden was. But ATF, in compliance with the EO TRump has issued, is unwinding changes Biden made but even they have to go by the law as Congress intended.
For example, Trump can’t order the ATF to no longer require people to register NFA items because the law as congress intended when it was passed said they will be registered so ATF can’t rescind a rule that contravenes that requirement in law.
On the other hand Biden ordered the ATF to have ‘zero tolerance’ on FFL’s. So ATF modified rules that made it possible to take an FFL license for a clerical error like a spelling mistake and because that mistake existed the ATF in their interpretation of their own rules said it was proof of intent to satisfy the ‘zero tolerance’ order of Biden – congress never intended that, thus Biden created unconstitutional and illegal defacto-law usurping the authority of congress.
Correction for: “For example, Trump can’t order the ATF to no longer require people to register NFA items because the law as congress intended when it was passed said they will be registered so ATF can’t rescind a rule that contravenes that requirement in law.”
should have been…
For example, Trump can’t order the ATF to no longer require people to register NFA items because the law as congress intended when it was passed said they will be registered so ATF can’t rescind or modify a rule in such a manner that the action would contravene that requirement in law.
atf, suck my ducking dick
…ducking fick?…