The ATF proposed a federal rule that expands the definition of a firearms ‘dealer.’
The National Rifle Association (NRA) sounded the alarm on a gun-control proposal from a federal regulatory agency that could “unjustly criminalize” Americans from selling a firearm.
In a statement Tuesday, the largest U.S. guns-rights group flagged that a rule proposed earlier this year by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive (ATF) known as ATF2022R-17, which proposed amending and broadening the definition of when a person is deemed to have been “engaged in the business” of being a firearms dealer other than a gunsmith or pawn-broker.
It would expand the definition of a firearms “dealer” to anyone who “sells or offers for sale firearms, and also represents to potential buyers or otherwise demonstrates a willingness and ability to purchase and sell additional firearms,” according to the rule proposal. It would also include the definition would be broadened to include people who sell guns for services, property, or anything other than cash.
The proposal would create a “stand-alone definition of ‘terrorism,'” and would “clarif[y] what it means for a person to be ‘engaged in the business’ of dealing in firearms, and to have the intent to ‘predominantly earn a profit’ from the sale or disposition of firearms,” the rule’s summary stated on the Federal Register. The public comment period on the rule ended last week.
An NRA official, Randy Kozuch, told Fox News Tuesday that the rule would be “just another attempt to demolish our Second Amendment rights, with the potential to unjustly criminalize everyday Americans for engaging in lawful firearm transactions.”
“This rule blatantly disregards the recent NRA-backed Bruen ruling on the Second Amendment,” Mr. Kozuch added. “It also creates serious confusion among lawful gun owners who buy and sell firearms legally for various purposes, from collecting to self-defense.”
The NRA, in an earlier statement, said that the ATF doesn’t have “the resources nor the intent of handling the massive increase in” Federal Firearms Licenses that the proposed rule “would result if its terms were adopted.”
“Instead, the proposal is a transparent attempt to strong-arm Internet service providers, gun shows, technology platforms, and other facilitators to abandon any involvement in private gun sales with vague threats of ‘administrative action’ for non-compliance,” the statement added. “Meanwhile, the cartels, gang members, firearm smugglers, and violent sociopaths Congress had in mind when passing the law that supposedly enables the proposal will be entirely unaffected.”
By Jack Phillips
