Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Thursday called for abolishing the ATF over a new rule that bypassed Congress and threatens to turn countless law-abiding gun owners into felons.
Steven Dettelbach, President Joe Biden’s director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified about the rule before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
He struggled to answer the most relevant question Gaetz posed about the rule his agency must enforce.
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The regulation redefines the definition of a gun “dealer.” Last month, the NRA noted that the change was quite radical, even though it entailed deleting just one word in a massive 466-page rule.
The new regulation struck the word “livelihood” from the definition of a gun dealer requiring a federal license to sell firearms. With the change, those whom the feds considered to be “engaged in the business” include anyone who makes a “profit” from trading in firearms — whether they accept cash, another gun, or some type of service.
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Under the rule, sellers must seek background checks for private gun sales once they are defined as dealers. The NRA warned that the rule would end private sales between individuals, including family members or friends, or force those involved in such transactions to become bogged down in the feds’ paper shuffle.
Second Amendment proponents, including some red-state attorneys general, have challenged the rule in court.
Gaetz simply asked Dettelbach, “So, how many firearms does someone have to sell to be ‘engaged in the business’ of firearms dealing?”
The ATF director ducked the question, citing the ongoing litigation, and said that some instances of being a gun dealer are “conduct-based.”
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Gaetz countered that vagueness and ambiguity were the point of the rule so that the ATF would be the one to define what a gun dealer is. He added that would put law-abiding citizens in a position where they face “[ATF] guys breaking their doors down and potentially killing them.”
As the NRA said last month, “The rule may create enough doubt in the mind of conscientious, law-abiding gun owners that they simply avoid engaging in or facilitating private transfers altogether. It is, in other words, regulation by intimidation.”
After the hearing, Gaetz denounced the regulation and the ATF on X.
“The ATF is once again trying to create felons out of law-abiding Americans. ATF’s new rule attacks private sales in an attempt to bar Americans from legally transferring firearms,” he posted.
“It’s so over-broad, Director Dettelbach himself can’t define it! Congress needs to ABOLISH the ATF!”
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