When Congress passed the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act of 1986, which revised many provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968, they prohibited the creation of a federal gun registry. Yet the Biden administration is taking steps to create a backdoor registry anyway. This is part of a new rule the Biden administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) wants to institute by expanding the definition of what legally constitutes a firearm.
“The Biden administration wants to institute a final rule redefining a ‘firearm’ under federal law to not only mean a complete product, but also its individual parts, often included in a weapons parts kit,” says Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a press release announcing that he, and several other senators, plan to submit a Congressional Review Act Joint Resolution of Disapproval (CRA) in an effort to “prohibit President Biden’s Department of Justice from implementing a new rule to expand firearm definitions.” The others are Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Michael Braun (R-Ind.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah).
“If implemented, this new rule would require gun kits and gun parts to be regulated as if they were fully functional firearms—meaning they wouldn’t be able to be sold without a serial number or without the buyer having to undergo a background check,” say the senators.
The new rule would also require gun dealers to keep records of sales forever. Under current law, firearm transaction records can be destroyed after 20 years. Also under current law, a gun store that is going out of business must send all of its gun sales records to the ATF. This rule change would mean that, because records must be kept indefinitely, more records would likely be sent to the ATF when a dealer decides to no longer be a dealer. These additional records could then be used by the federal government if it chooses to build a registry of gun owners.
“Crime is going up in far-left cities because of soft-on-crime policies. Biden’s response is to clamp down on guns put together in a kit. Federal law already prohibits felons from owning or possessing any gun, including so called ‘ghost guns,’” said Sen. Lankford. “This is another attempt by the Biden administration to strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights instead of addressing the failed policies that have led to increased crime across the country.”
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