Thursday morning, my plan got thrown in a bit of a tissy. My stories, already written and filed, were set to drop at particular times. All of that had to be reworked because the Biden administration issued the long-feared rule addressing the “gun show loophole.”
Now, it does no such thing, which I pointed out and which Cam got into more detail with while talking to The Reload’s Stephen Gutowski, but it is what it is. This is how it’s going to be framed and the media, who rarely understands anything about the gun industry, is running with it.
And, unsurprisingly, the usual suspects are thrilled with the news.
“To be clear, that ‘gun show loophole’ has been a death sentence for countless Americans, and that will change with this action,” said Kris Brown, president of the gun violence prevention group Brady. “This rule will save lives by ensuring those who engage in the business of selling firearms are taking the necessary precautions we require of all other licensed gun sellers. In doing so, we can mitigate the proliferation of firearms in our communities and keep weapons out of the hands of those most at risk of harm.”
“I am elated that President Biden continues to deliver on his promise to represent the will of the people and make progress to free America from gun violence,” she added. “I urge Congress to follow suit and pass universal background checks without delay.”
Brown noted that 90% of Americans support universal background checks for gun purchases, and that the new rule is the direct result of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was passed in 2022.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called the rule “the most impactful change made possible by the 2022 gun safety bill.”
Of course, leading up to this, the writer continued to push the nonsense that there were tons of private “dealers” selling guns for profit lawfully via this supposed loophole.
The problem is that the claim of “dealers” is, at best, nebulous. I’ve sold guns before. A lot of people have. I wasn’t trying to make a living, just sell some firearms that I wasn’t using at a time when money was lean.
Had one of those been used in a crime, I likely would have been labeled a private dealer for the purposes of this claim, even though I was no such thing.
Meanwhile, it’s not like pro-gun voices are being super quiet, either.
In a statement, Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action Randy Kozuch said:
“This latest Biden Administration attack on law-abiding gun owners is a blatant attempt to coerce Americans to forego legal activity with firearms under threat of potential confiscation of their lawfully acquired and constitutionally protected property. The Administration has conceded that it cannot enforce this unlawful rule in criminal cases because they know that it exceeds the limited authority granted to them by Congress and, in some cases, expressly contradicts the statutory text. NRA is already working to use all means available to stop this unlawful rule.”
Translation: The lawsuit is coming.
And it should be.
Look, the issue isn’t that the Biden administration is trying to crack down on actually illegal gun sales. There are people who are buying and selling a lot of guns with the intention of making money and, frankly, those people are making our lives that much harder. Yet this won’t really impact them.
What this does is make it so that I can’t be sure if my selling a gun is going to run afoul of the ATF regulations or not. Especially if I’m selling it at the current market value after years of inflation. Because the sale price might be greater than the purchase price–even if the difference doesn’t exist in real dollars–then it’s entirely possible the ATF will decide I made money on the deal.
That’s not how it’s supposed to work, but as Gutowski told Cam on Thursday, that murky nonsense is kind of what the ATF’s stock and trade has been of late.
So cue the lawsuits.
It’s a shame they’re needed, but the Biden administration can’t be allowed to get away with this without a fight.
