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Sept. 21, 2023 - Epoch Times
12:46
New ATF Rule Would Criminalize "Even One Firearm Sale"
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Good evening, and right before we dive into the main story, I'll quickly mention that if you are just sick and tired of all the censorship on this platform, as well as all the other platforms on there, and if you are looking for a source of actual honest news, well, you're in luck, because the Epoch Times has recently extended their awesome sale on subscriptions.
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Now, diving into the main story.
The federal government's agency that's in charge of regulating guns, the ATF, they have just put forth a new rule, which would classify anyone in the whole country who sells even a single firearm to a friend or a family member as a quote-unquote gun dealer, subject to arrest without proper license.
And this new ATF rule is just the latest step in the federal government's ongoing plan to bypass Congress and implement something akin to a universal background check.
Although, in order to explain what this rule exactly is, as well as how we got to this point, let's back up for a quick moment and start at the very beginning, right after you take a super quick moment to smash those like and subscribe buttons, which will quite literally force the YouTube algorithm, which is typically very anti-gun, to share this video and this content out to ever more people.
Now, with that out of the way, you might remember how in June of last year, in June of 2022, you had something called the Safer Communities Act passed by Congress and then signed into law by Joe Biden.
In the U.S. Senate, you had all 50 Democrats vote in favor of the bill, with 15 Republicans joining in as well.
While in the U.S. House, you had all 220 Democrats vote in favor, with 14 Republicans voting in favor as well.
Meaning, in practical terms, that this was a truly bipartisan bill.
It would not have been able to pass through Congress without having Republican support, especially in the U.S. Senate, where the Republicans could have theoretically used the filibuster.
Meaning, that realistically, this was a truly bipartisan piece of legislation.
And in the name of ending gun violence, this particular law did many things.
It helped to fund school safety programs, it extended background checks, it provided federal funding for red flag laws in states around the country, and so on.
Now, whether any of these provisions are having an actual positive net effect, well, that's dubious to say the least.
According to the most recent data, the number of mass shootings in the U.S., as defined by four or more people getting killed or injured in a single incident, is on pace this year to be over 700.
Which would mean that after a year of this law's implementation, the number of mass shootings has actually increased.
But fear not.
Because Joe Biden, he has a solution.
Earlier this year, the White House issued an executive order outlining new actions that the administration was taking in order to reduce gun violence.
Here was part of what that statement read.
Quote, Specifically,
The president is directing the attorney general to move the U.S. as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation by clarifying, as appropriate, the statutory definition of who is, quote, engaged in the business of dealing in firearms, as updated by the bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
And right there, in those few sentences, lies the true power of the administrative state.
Without having to pass any additional pieces of legislation, the Biden administration is moving towards implementing universal background checks across the whole country using administrative rules.
They're doing this, again, without any new pieces of legislation.
But instead, what they're planning to do is to redefine the words that are in the laws that are already on the books.
Because, think about it, if you can redefine the words that are in the laws...
You can pretty much expand the law to be whatever it is you want it to be.
And so, with this directive from the White House, the ATF, which for your reference sits underneath the Justice Department within the federal government, well, they got to work on writing up a new administrative rule.
Now this process, it took a few months, but finally, about two weeks ago, The Department of Justice, which is again the parent agency of the ATF, they released this notice right here that's titled Justice Department proposes new regulation to update the definition of what it means to be engaged in the business as a firearms dealer.
This is a directive to update the definition of certain words that are already in the law.
You see, in the text of the so-called Safer Communities Act, which was passed into law last year, it references people who are engaged in the business as a firearms dealer.
And if they are engaged in such a business, they must obtain a license and they must run background checks on their customers, whoever comes to them to buy guns.
However, the question is, what exactly is a firearms dealer?
You would assume that a firearms dealer is a person who owns a gun store, or maybe they sell guns online, or maybe it's a person who travels around the country selling guns at gun shows.
That would be a typical interpretation.
In fact, in the text of the so-called Safer Communities Act, the definition of engaging in the business of firearms dealing was expanded to cover all persons who devote time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business to predominantly earn a profit through the repetitive purchase and sale of firearms.
Now, I would assume, to most people, this definition makes logical sense.
If you ask a regular person on the street about what qualifies someone as being a firearms dealer, they would probably say something just like this, that they have a business which involves buying and selling guns to make a profit.
That definition would make logical sense.
However, in order to implement the Biden administration's directive, the directive from the executive order to create a universal background check system without passing any new additional pieces of legislation, well, the Department of Justice is making a, you can say slight modification to this definition.
Although the slight modification comes in the form of a document that's literally 108 pages long.
And buried within the text of that document is this little bit right here.
Quote, But it gets even crazy.
Sorry.
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Meaning that according to this new updated definition, even if you make a single transaction, maybe you sell a gun to your friend or to your family member, or even if you don't make the transaction, but you just make an offer to engage in the transaction, you will be considered as engaging in the business of dealing in firearms.
Now, of course, in that last sentence, the ATF said that they will take other evidence into consideration as well.
And among the other pieces of evidence that they can take into consideration, they offer a few examples.
Quote, A person who sells or offers for sale firearms and also represents to potential buyers or otherwise a willingness and ability to purchase and sell additional firearms.
A person spends more money or its equivalent on purchases of firearms for the purpose of resale than the person's reported taxable gross income during the year.
Or he or she repeatedly sells or offers for sale firearms that are new or like new in their original packaging.
However, further down in this document, The ATF specifically goes on to say that this list is not exhaustive.
And this right here is exactly the heart of the matter.
Because the question is always, what powers does the government have?
The question is not, how does the government justify their powers, but rather, what powers does the government actually have?
And in this case, according to the wording of this new rule, they would be able to label individuals who sell a single gun or they make an offer to sell a single gun as an actual firearms dealer.
In this language, it would then provide the ATF with enough, you can say, wiggle room to go after and prosecute these legal gun owners for operating as unlicensed dealers.
And furthermore, if you consider that on top of this new proposed rule, under the Biden administration, the ATF has already adopted a zero-tolerance policy for licensed gun dealers, such that gun store owners can be shut down for even a single small mistake on their paperwork.
And so you can just imagine how seriously and how vociferously the ATF would go after potentially tens of thousands of new gun dealers whose only crime was just transferring their gun to a friend or a family member.
Also, it's not exactly clear how much crime this rule would actually deter, although that might not be the true purpose.
Because again, according to that earlier statement from Joe Biden, the one that was included in his executive order, the goal is actually to institute a universal background check system across the whole country without any new pieces of legislation.
And so, turning as many private citizens as possible, who happen to sell their guns to a friend or family member, into actual, federally registered gun dealers, well that appears to just be the next logical step in order to restrict people's ability to privately transfer their guns to one another without having them recorded in the ATF's National Federal Registry.
Now, the way that administrative law generally works is that when an agency, like the ATF for instance, is about to make a change to their administrative guidelines, they have to publish a public notice for a certain length of time allowing the public to leave comments.
Meaning, they have to inform the public of the change that they're making and they have to give the public a period of time to leave comments regarding this proposed change.
And as such, about two weeks ago, the Department of Justice, they posted this new rule online.
You can see it up on screen for yourself, and it'll be left online for 90 days of public comment.
And so, if in the next three months you'd like to read this proposed rule change in its entirety, and or you'd like to leave some public comments regarding this rule change, I'll throw a link to the ATF webpage.
It'll be down there in the description box below.
And I will mention that negative comments, negative public comments on rules like these do have an effect, because if there are enough negative comments, the rule might actually not go into effect.
And then lastly, if you are indeed sick and tired of the censorship on this platform, with or without the federal government's involvement, well, you're in luck.
Because as I alluded to at the top of the episode, the Epoch Times has recently extended its awesome sale and subscriptions, just 25 cents a week for the entirety of the year, which if you do the math, works itself out to just be a single dollar a month.
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And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times.
Stay informed.
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