A watchdog group “dedicated to enhancing independent oversight of government and corporate wrongdoing” is warning that President Biden’s administration is looking to “effectively ban private sales of firearms from one citizen to another” by “requiring background checks for every sale.”
Empower Oversight points to an Executive Order signed by Biden in March 2023 requiring the Department of Justice (DOJ) to “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.”
The point of the E.O., according to Biden, was to “move us as close as we can to universal background checks without new legislation.”
According to Empower Oversight, 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 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[5]—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,'” the group explains.
Citing two whistleblower sources within the ATF, Empower Oversight reports that “at the direction of the White House, the ATF has drafted a 1,300-page document in support of a rule that would effectively ban private sales of firearms from one citizen to another by requiring background checks for every sale.”
The “drafting of the document is reportedly being overseen by Senior Policy Counsel Eric Epstein, who worked as the Phoenix Field Office’s Division Counsel during Operation Wide Receiver (a precursor of Operation Fast and Furious),” according to Empower’s sources.
“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,'” Tristan Leavitt, President of Empower Oversight, wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and ATF Director Steven Dettelbach. “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.'”
What’s more, Leavitt argues, history has taught us that such a rule would put ATF members in danger’s way.
“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,” he told Garland and Dettelbach.
According to Leavitt, ATF agents “did not sign up” for this.
“The fact that inside ATF sources are blowing the whistle on this draft rule is an indication of what a difficult position it would put the ATF in,” he said in a statement. “ATF agents did not sign up to go after law-abiding citizens for private sales protected under the Second Amendment of the Constitution.”
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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