NYT Discloses New Details About Biden's Universal Background Check Mandate

Submitted by Gun Owners of America,

Earlier this year, we reported on President Biden's announcement that he'd be directing the Department of Justice to "move the United States as close as possible to universal background checks without additional legislation." 

The move to govern by executive fiat is loud and clear. The ATF & DOJ will publish this new rule in the second half of 2024, with a proposal released "soon," according to a new report by the New York Times —which seems to have access to internal ATF policy.  

2️⃣Anti-gunners are rebranding private firearm sales as “the gun seller loophole” to justify executive action—rather than the passage of a new law.🤯https://t.co/e0vXbfZu3V

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) August 1, 2023

Other details about the rule in the NYT report include: 

Anyone who makes "a profit" from selling firearms, perhaps as little as $1, is to be prohibited from selling their privately owned firearms without a Federal Firearms License (FFL) or a background check. 

According to the report, anti-gun organizations are pushing ATF to limit the number of firearms sales a private citizen may engage in without an FFL. Currently, anti-gunners want to limit collectors and sellers to 5 guns or fewer. An Obama-era regulation would have set the threshold at 1–2-gun sales per person.  

Failing to register as an FFL holder will carry a penalty of up to 5 years in Federal prison and a $250,000 fine. 

1️⃣@NYTimes (which leaked the info) stated that the proposal is “expected to be released soon” with a final rule to be published in the “second half of 2024.”

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) August 1, 2023

Universal Background Checks, especially when implemented by executive order, are a blatant infringement — with no basis in the text or history of the Second Amendment.  

For Universal Background Checks to exist, there must be a registry to support a trace. Forms 4473—transformed by the Biden Administration into permanent gun registration forms — are the only enforcement mechanism for Universal Background Checks, as they would prove who obtained a firearm legally (and has a Form 4473 to prove it) and who did not complete the required registration form (and has therefore violated the law).  

Registries of firearms always precede confiscation. 

GOA has already announced plans to file a lawsuit to block this rule, but that does not absolve Congress of its responsibility to use every means necessary to defend the Second Amendment. 

While Gun Owners of America fights for the Second Amendment in the courts, Congress must repeal the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act  —the law that has allowed for ATF to now subvert Congress with this rulemaking. The act has been completely weaponized, gun owners have gained nothing, and America is no safer. 

Congress must also participate in the rulemaking process and voice its opposition to backdoor universal background registration checks during the public notice and comment period alongside GOA members. After commenting during the proposed rule phase, Congress must also take up a joint resolution of disapproval pursuant to the Congressional Review Act and strike down this unconstitutional infringement. 

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