{"id":17347,"date":"2023-09-01T06:14:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T11:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=17347"},"modified":"2023-09-01T06:14:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T11:14:05","slug":"biden-administration-proposes-major-expansion-of-gun-sale-background-checks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=17347","title":{"rendered":"Biden Administration Proposes Major Expansion Of Gun Sale Background Checks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 A proposed regulation announced Thursday by the Biden administration would require thousands of gun sellers to register with the federal government and conduct background checks of their customers.
A small part of the bipartisan gun law Congress passed last year broadened the definition of a \u201cgun dealer\u201d as a way of reducing the number of sales that don\u2019t go through the background check system.
President\u00a0Joe Biden\u00a0ordered the Justice Department earlier this year to write the regulation so the government could get \u201cas close as we can to universal background checks without new legislation.\u201d
Only those who are \u201cengaged in the business\u201d of firearms have been required to register as federal firearms licensees, while people who don\u2019t regularly sell guns, such as hobbyists, have been exempt.
In a statement on Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the proposal \u201cimplements Congress\u2019s mandate to expand the definition of who must obtain a license and conduct a background check before selling firearms.\u201d
The lack of background checks for so-called \u201cprivate\u201d transactions has been called the \u201cgun show loophole,\u201d though in recent years there have probably more such sales online than at gun shows. Background checks prevent gun sales to people who aren\u2019t allowed to own guns under federal law, such as people convicted of violent crimes.
Steven Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said an \u201cincreasing number\u201d of people have been selling firearms for profit without registering.
\u201cInstead, they have sought to make money through the off-book, illicit sale of firearms,\u201d Dettelbach said in a statement Thursday. \u201cThese activities undermine the law, endanger public safety, create significant burdens on law enforcement, and are unfair to the many licensed dealers who make considerable efforts to follow the law.\u201d
Under the new definition, a person would be said to be \u201cengaged in the business\u201d of firearms if their principal aim is to profit, \u201cas opposed to other intents, such as improving or liquidating a personal firearms collection,\u201d the law says. At the time it was drafted, it wasn\u2019t clear how many people would be affected, since it would be up to the ATF to put it through regulation.
According to the text of the ATF\u2019s\u00a0proposed rulemaking, the broader definition of a gun seller would affect between 24,540 and 328,296 unlicensed dealers. There were 136,563\u00a0active federal firearms licensees in 2022, so the ATF is estimating that the regulation could greatly increase their ranks.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of the authors of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, told HuffPost earlier this year that the law\u2019s expanded meaning of \u201cengaged in the business\u201d would basically fulfill\u00a0Democrats\u2019 goal of expanding background checks, though Cornyn also bristled at Biden\u2019s push for the eventual regulation to get as close to universal background checks as possible. Experts have said the change would not encompass all private gun sales, and Democrats have said they still want to change the law to require universal checks.
Mark Collins, director of federal policy for Brady, a gun control group, said the new regulation would not be tantamount to universal background checks.
\u201cIn terms of whether or not it gets us to universal, I think it\u2019s a big step closer to it,\u201d Collins said. \u201cBut I would be hesitant to say that it gets us to complete universal without Congress acting.\u201d
Under the proposed rule, a person would be considered \u201cengaged\u201d in the firearm business if they meet certain new criteria, including if they sell someone a gun while telling the buyer more are available; if they repeatedly purchase firearms for sale within 30 days; or if they\u2019re reselling guns in their original packaging.
The public has 90 days to comment on the regulation before the government can begin to finalize it.
A bipartisan group of senators wrote the 2022 law in response to multiple mass shootings. Its main provisions enhanced background checks for gun buyers under 21, created grants for states to enact \u201cred flag\u201d laws, and provided funds for school safety and mental health services.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the law\u2019s main Democratic authors, praised the proposed regulation on Thursday.
\u201cFor too long, the ambiguous definition of what it means to be \u2018engaged in the business\u2019 allowed thousands of unlicensed dealers to sell guns without background checks,\u201d Murphy said in a statement, adding that the change will \u201csignificantly increase the number of background checks performed and ensure more guns stay out of dangerous hands.\u201d
huffpost<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2015 A proposed regulation announced Thursday by the Biden administration would require thousands of gun sellers to register with the federal government and conduct background checks of their customers.A small part of the bipartisan gun law Congress passed last year broadened the definition of a \u201cgun dealer\u201d as a way of reducing the number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10459,2547,1465],"class_list":["post-17347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-biden-administration","tag-guns","tag-sales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17349,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17347\/revisions\/17349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}