GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, who is also the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is pushing Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms chief Steve Dettelbach to reveal the decision-making process that led to requiring more gun sellers to be licensed by the federal government.
In a letter to Dettelbach, Jordan said the effort by the ATF and gun regulators, “Threatens to violate the Second Amendment rights of millions of Americans," and demanded that Dettelbach provide the committee with records — and to explain how the ATF plans to enforce the policy.
As Cleveland.com points out, the rule would broaden the definition of when a person is considered “engaged in the business” of selling guns, and require more people to need a federal license.
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According to Dettelbach, unlicensed gun dealers are selling guns “through the off-book, illicit” sales.
“These 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,” Dettelbach said in a statement.
But according to Jordan, the Biden administration is, “Attempting to abuse the federal rulemaking process to circumvent Congress in order to achieve a far-left policy outcome.”
“ATF’s regulatory notice is well beyond the scope of its authority and threatens to violate the Second Amendment rights of millions of Americans,” Jordan said in his letter.
“The rule states that ‘absent reliable evidence to the contrary,’ individuals are presumed to be ‘engaged in the business of dealing in firearms’ if their conduct falls within one of ATF’s specified presumptions,” Jordan’s letter continues.
“In other words, the rule flips the burden of proof and presumes that Americans engaged in conduct disfavored by ATF are breaking the law unless they can prove their innocence.”
Read more at Cleveland.com.
