For the first time in American history, the federal government will require virtually every person who sells a gun privately to be a licensed gun dealer – and every person who buys one privately to register the sale with the federal government!
(Image: A Double whammy – either the “Punisher” or the Gadsden Snake will subject me to be put on an FBI “domestic terrorist” watchlist.)
As you know, gun registration is the first step towards confiscation and by becoming a licensed gun dealer, gun owners would be forced to submit to warrantless searches by ATF agents looking for even the slightest violations.
To make matters even worse, the ATF can throw the book at any gun owner who runs afoul of the new rule! If you sell a gun and the ATF determines you made a “profit,” you can be jailed for 5 years and fined $250,000!
Time is running out for comments against the proposed rule. The on-line comments form is at REGULATIONS.GOV. Go there and leave your comment in opposition to this bizarre (and unconstitutional) proposed rule. The comment period ends December 07, 2023, so just do it NOW. Copy and paste is OK.
The following are a couple of comments made by others in opposition to the NPRM:
From John Crump at Ammoland:
I strongly oppose the proposed rule that redefines who is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms. The new rule will burden American gun owners by creating a grey area where they can inadvertently break the law.
The new requirement circumvents Congress by creating a de facto universal background check rule. Congress has chosen to leave background check laws for private gun sales to the state governments. This rule will override the authority of the states with overburdensome federal regulations and strip state’s rights.
The regulation will not make us any safer. The vast majority of guns used in crimes are stolen. States that have enacted universal background checks did not see any reduction of crimes committed with firearms. I strongly encourage the government to work on real solutions to solve the epidemic of violent crime and stop using firearms as a scapegoat for failed policies.
From the Arizona Citizens’ Defense League (AZCDL):
1. ATF is wrong to suggest a single firearm sale—or no sale at all—might require a license. ATF’s rule does not specify a certain number of firearms sold but instead suggests that “even a single firearm transaction, or offer to engage in a transaction, when combined with other evidence, may be sufficient to require a license.”
However, the statutes enacted by Congress clearly do not intend to regulate the conduct of an individual who merely sells a single firearm. Instead, 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(11), (21), (22), and (23) contemplate regulating someone who “regular[ly]” and “repetitive[ly]” either (a) manufactures and sells or (b) purchases and resells multiple “firearms.”
2. ATF fails to protect unlicensed conduct exempted by Congress. Congress also expressly exempted “occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby.”
3. Wrongfully licensing constitutionally protected activity will lead to warrantless searches and additional constitutional violations. Selling a single firearm—which might make you a newly-minted gun dealer—could subject you to warrantless searches of your home and firearm collection. This is a clear violation of both the Second and Fourth Amendments, and runs totally contrary to the Supreme Court’s Caniglia decision in 2021, wherein the court ruled unanimously that warrantless searches for firearms as part of a “welfare check” is unconstitutional.
4. ATF suggests it might deny a license to applicants who the agency ordered to become licensed due to prior sales without a license. Catch-22!
5. ATF’s backdoor Universal Background Check includes Universal Firearms Registration. So-called “Universal Background Checks” are only enforceable with a gun registry. This rule proposes that private citizens be regulated by the federal government as gun dealers, forcing them to run background checks on every firearm transaction in a backdoor attempt to require private citizens to eventually turn over these registration papers (i.e. Forms 4473, Multiple Sales Reports, and Acquisition and Disposition logs). Failure to do so will be considered a federal crime. The Biden Administration described this as “moving the U.S. as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation.”
Again, the link to the regulations.gov page is here: