Set to take effect on February 3rd, new rules from the DOJ that were announced yesterday modify late-90’s law to expand and clarify an FFL’s requirement to offer secure gun storage or safety devices for all firearms sold to customers. It also appears to have expanded the definition of “antique firearm.”
You can read the rule as entered in the Federal Register here.
Every type of FFL, modified to now include manufacturers and importers, will have to certify that “secure gun storage or safety devices will be available at any place where firearms are sold under the license to non-licensed individuals.”
Furthermore, those secure gun storage devices (safes, lockers, locking cases, or most other containers that require a key or combination to access) or safety devices (trigger locks, cable locks, “a device incorporated into the design of the firearm,” etc.) must actually be compatible with the firearms offered for sale by the FFL.
Overall this is a minor change, but it does mean that every FFL — from pawn shops to manufacturers — that will ever sell a firearm to an individual must have available a storage device or safety device that is compatible with each firearm they sell. Obviously just because it’s available to the customer doesn’t mean it has to be included with every firearm (though the majority of new guns, of course, already ship from the manufacturer with some sort of trigger lock or cable lock in the box anyway).
Finally, some tweaks were made to firearm definitions, including expanding the 1968 Gun Control Act definition of “antique firearm” to include:
“…a weapon that is a muzzle loading rifle, muzzle loading shotgun, or muzzle loading pistol; that is designed to use black powder or a black powder substitute; and that cannot use fixed ammunition. The term expressly does not include any weapon that incorporates a firearm frame or receiver; any firearm converted into a muzzle loading weapon; or any muzzle loading weapon that can be readily converted to fire fixed ammunition by replacing the barrel, bolt, breechblock, or any combination thereof. 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(16)(C).”
The full text of the new rules can be found HERE.