by The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has posted their rule (Document Citation 89 FR 28968) defining what they contend is “engaged in the business” of dealing firearms. The rule was posted in the Federal Register early this morning and will become effective on May 20, 2024. They assert this redefinition was forced upon them by the change in wording of a dealer put into the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. While both Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) contend this was not their intention, they were stupid enough to believe Chris Murphy and the rest of the gun prohibitionist Democrats.
Bill Sacks of the Second Amendment Foundation breaks down the new rule and provides an explanation of it. I should note the full PDF post of the ruling goes for 126 pages.
I have not read all 126 pages of the ruling. However, I did see that they had received 258,000 comments in favor of the rule with only 99,000 opposing it. That said, 98% of those in favor of the rule submitted boilerplate wording from one of the gun control corporate entities. By contrast, only 81% of the comments opposing the new rule were boilerplate meaning that those opposed to the rule were much more likely to submit a pertinent comment. It does bother me that the prohibitionists were able to generate 2 1/2 times more comments in favor of the rule than we did in opposition. Of course the numbers could have been reversed and the Department of Justice would still have ruled as they did. It is obvious reading the responses that we don’t count in this administration.
I fully anticipate organizations such as SAF, FPC, and GOA will file suit against this rule in the days to come. Now that Joseph Greenlee is the Director of Litigation for the NRA-ILA there is some hope that they will also file suit.
I did hear a suggestion today that we should overwhelm the ATF by having everyone pony up the $2-300 required for a 01 FFL and submit their application. You may remember that prior to the Clinton Administration raising the cost there were approximately 300,000 FFLs in the US. Today the number is between 50,000 and 80,000. It is an interesting approach but one I don’t think I’ll take.