New ATF Rule Can Send you to PRISON for Selling “A Single Gun”

Two days ago, the Biden administration finalized a new rule which now gives him the authority to classify anyone in the country who sells even a single gun to a friend or a family member as a quote-unquote gun dealer, subject to arrest without a proper license. And as a practical matter, this new rule is just the latest step in the federal government's ongoing effort to essentially bypass Congress and to implement something akin to a universal background check. Although, in order to explain what this new rule is, what the implications are moving forward, as well as how we generally got to this point, let me give you the relevant background here, right after you take a super quick moment to smash those like and subscribe buttons so that this video can reach ever more people. All right. You might remember how back in June of 2022, there was something called the Safer Communities Act that was passed by Congress, and then subsequently it was signed into law by Joe Biden. In the U.S. Senate, you had all 50 Democrats vote in favor of the bill alongside 15 Republicans who joined in. While in the U.S. House, you had all 220 Democrats vote in favor of the bill, with 14 Republicans voting in favor as well, meaning that in practical terms, this was a truly bipartisan bill. It would not have been able to pass through Congress without Republican support. In the Senate, the Republicans could have filibustered, while in the U.S. House, Republicans actually have the majority, meaning that realistically, this was a bipartisan piece of legislation. And so in the name of ending gun violence, the Safer Communities Act did many things. It helped to fund school safety programs. It extended background checks. It provided federal funding for red flag laws in different states across the country and so on. Now, whether or not these provisions had any positive net effect two years later is dubious at best. According to the most recent data, the number of mass shootings in the U.S. as defined by four or more people getting killed or injured in a single shooting incident, it was higher in 2023 than it was in 2022. And this year, 2024, it's actually on pace to hit that same level as last year, which would mean that two years after this law's implementation, the number of mass shootings has actually increased. But fear not, because Joe Biden has a solution. Last year, the White House issued an executive order, you can see it up on your screen, outlining new actions that the administration was taking in order to reduce gun violence. Here's part of what that executive order said. Quote, the executive order directs the president's cabinet to increase the number of background checks by ensuring that all background checks required by law are conducted before firearm purchases, moving the U.S. as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation. Specifically, the president is directing the attorney general to move the U.S. as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation by clarifying, as appropriate, the statutory definition of who is engaged in the business of dealing in firearms as updated by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. And so in practical terms, this executive order, it directed the U.S. attorney general, Mr. Merrick Garland, to change the definition of what it means to be engaging in the business of dealing in firearms, which actually in and of itself reveals the true power of the administrative state. Without needing Congress to pass any additional laws, the Biden administration is able to move towards implementing universal background checks by simply redefining the words in the laws that are already in the books, because if you redefine the words that are in the laws that already exist, in practical terms, you can pretty much expand the law to be whatever it is you want it to be. And so with this directive coming from the White House in March of last year, the ATF, which is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and for your reference, the ATF sits underneath the DOJ, the Department of Justice, they got to work on writing up a new administrative rule. This process, it took a few months, but finally, in August of last year, the Department of Justice, which is again the parent agency of the ATF, they released this notice right here titled Justice Department proposes new regulation to update definition of engaged in the business as a firearms dealer. Just as the White House requested, it's a directive to update the definition of certain words that are already in the law. Because you see, in the text of the actual Safer Communities Act of 2022, it references people who are engaged in the business as a firearms dealer. And if they are engaged in such a business, they must obtain a license and they must run background checks on their customers. However, the obvious question is what exactly is a firearms dealer? You would assume that a firearms dealer is a person who happens to own a gun store, or maybe it's someone who sells guns online, or maybe it's a person who travels around the country selling guns at gun shows. That would be the typical interpretation of that word. In fact, in the actual text of the Safer Communities Act, the definition of engaging in the business of firearms dealing was written to cover all persons who, quote, devote time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business to predominantly earn a profit through the repetitive purchase and sale of firearms. Now, on the face of it, this definition seems to make sense. I'm sure that if you ask a regular person somewhere on the street about what qualifies someone as a firearms dealer, they would probably say something exactly like this, that the person has a business which involves the buying and selling of guns in order to make a profit. Makes logical sense. However, in order to implement the Biden administration's directive, a directive whose ultimate stated purpose is to move the country towards a universal background check system without having to implement any pesky new laws through Congress, well, the Department of Justice proposed a slight modification to this definition in the law. Although it is worth mentioning that this slight modification actually came in the form of a document that was literally 108 pages long. And buried within that document is this little tidbit right here. Quote, similarly, there is no minimum number of transactions that determines whether a person is engaged in the business of dealing in firearms. Instead, the established approach for determining whether an individual is engaged in the business is to look at the totality of circumstances. Thus, even a single firearm transaction or offer to engage in a transaction, when combined with other evidence, may be sufficient to require a license, meaning that according to this proposed definition, even if you make a single transaction, maybe you sell a gun to your friend or your uncle, or even if you don't make the transaction, but you just make an offer to engage in the transaction, well, you will be considered as engaging in the business of dealing in firearms, meaning as a practical matter, that according to the wording of this new rule, the ATF would be able to label individuals who sell a single gun or even just offer to sell a single gun as an actual firearms dealer. In this language, it would provide the ATF with enough wiggle room to go after and prosecute gun owners for operating as unlicensed dealers. Now, of course, if you're a charitable person, you might assume that the bureaucrats over at the ATF, they wouldn't take it that far. They would probably use their discretion when labeling someone as an unlicensed dealer. However, that isn't necessarily going to be the case, especially when you consider that on top of this new rule under the Biden administration, the ATF has already adopted a zero tolerance policy when it comes to licensed gun dealers. Under the current policy, gun stores can be shut down for even a single small mistake under paperwork. And so you can just imagine how seriously they'll go after potentially tens of thousands of new unlicensed gun dealers whose crime is selling a shotgun to their uncle. Of course, they might not necessarily go after them, but it gives them the power to do so, which might actually help to explain why the ATF received an 8 percent increase in their budget this year compared to last year. Going after tens of thousands of Americans is not cheap. All right, just to pause here for a super quick moment, I'd like to introduce today's sponsor, which is Sirt Life Nutrition. 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It was designed to help you lose weight, support your overall health, and give you more energy. And best of all, to our viewers, to the viewers of Facts Matter, they're offering a $20 discount on this Ultimate SIRT Juice, which is great because it's a lot cheaper than buying all the individual foods separately. And so, check them out. Just head on over to GetSIRT.com forward slash Roman. That's G-E-T-S-I-R-T.com forward slash Roman and get $20 off. By the way, just legally, I do have to mention that none of these statements have been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. And of course, individual results will vary. Regardless, the way that administrative law works is that when an agency like the ATF is making a rule change, they publish a public notice for a certain length of time, allowing for public comment. They did this back in September of last year. And despite overwhelming negative feedback, well, just two days ago, the rule was signed into effect. The ATF officially rolled out a new definition of who qualifies as engaging in the business of firearm dealing. And just as an aside, as dutifully as always, the legacy mainstream news outlets in this country in one loud, uniform voice all heralded this change as nothing more than closing the so-called gun show loophole. In fact, if you do a quick Google search of this new rule change, you'll find dozens of articles that all say the same thing, that the ATF has closed the gun show loophole. It's almost like the government talking point went out and the state stenographers got busy writing. Regardless, alongside the actual rule change, Attorney General Merrick Garland, he came out with a statement of his own saying the following, quote, Now as a practical matter, Merrick Garland signed this rule on April 10th, which is two days ago, and it is set to officially go into effect on May 10th, which is a little under a month from now. The final version of this new rule is a cool 466 pages long. And just like any good federal rule, it's actually a bit ambiguous. For instance, on the one hand, it says that the only requirement for determining whether a person is engaged in the business of selling guns is whether or not the person intended to earn a profit. Here's, for instance, what it says on page three of the new rule, quote, Section 12002 of the Safer Communities Act broadened the definition of engaged in the business under 18 U.S. Code 921-A21C by eliminating the requirement that a person's principal objective of purchasing and reselling firearms must include both livelihood and profit and replacing it with a requirement that the person must intend to predominantly earn a profit, meaning that this change removed the requirement that a person earns a livelihood from gun sales and they replaced it with just the fact that a person needs to earn a profit through gun sales. On the flip side, however, the document later goes on to say that a person can still continue to engage in private sales of guns without a license so long as they're not engaged in the business. Quote, individuals may continue to engage in intrastate private sales without a license, provided that such individuals are not engaged in the business and the transactions are otherwise compliant with law. And so what this rule change appears to mean in practice is that if a person buys guns with the express purpose of later reselling those guns at a profit, even if it's just one single gun, then that person is engaged in the business. But if they just happen to sell a gun to someone else and make a profit in the process, that isn't necessarily them engaging in the business. And as to who will be making the determination on what your intentions were coming into it on a case by case basis, well, it'll very likely be a bureaucrat over at the ATF. And so good luck if your name happens to fall on that list. Regardless, the backlash against this new rule was immediate, with pretty much every pro-Second Amendment organization coming out in opposition. For instance, Mr. Dudley Brown, who is the president of the National Association for Gun Rights, he said the following after this rule change was signed. Quote, the new rule will outlaw virtually all private sales of firearms between individuals. And as we saw in the Brian Malinowski case in Little Rock, the ATF is willing to use outrageously excessive force, including murder, to punish violators. This rule brings us one step closer to Biden's dream of universal gun registration enforced by the ATF's jackbooted thugs. Likewise, you had the director of federal affairs over at the GOA, which is the Gun Owners of America, say the following. Quote, the Biden administration is weaponizing every tool in their toolbox to intimidate, harass, and criminalize gun owners with unlawful executive actions. This backdoor universal registration check rule is nothing more than a move to criminalize the sale of a single gun without a background check. By doing so, the government hopes to ensure that they are fully involved in every firearm transfer and eventually, the records of all those transfers will end up in their records database, which we have confirmed the existence of through FOIA requests, leaks, and congressional inquiry. Likewise, you had the NRA release a statement of their own, saying that they are already in the process of working to use all means available to stop what they're referring to as an unlawful rule. And so there you have it. This is the situation as it currently stands. The rule change has been made. The new rule will officially go into effect starting May 10th. And once that happens, if you sell any guns to anyone, well, you better have proof that you did not buy that gun with an intention to sell it for a profit. If you don't have that proof, well, you won't just be a thought criminal anymore. You will be an actual criminal. If you'd like to read the entirety of this 466-page rule change, I'll throw a link to it. You can find it down in the description box below if you're the type of person who likes to dig into the weeds. And then lastly, if you enjoyed today's content and you're thinking to yourself, man, I love this content, I just wish Roman would put out more episodes every single week. Well, you're in luck, because I do. Over on EpicTV, our awesome no-censorship video platform, I publish anywhere between 1 to 3 exclusive episodes of Facts Matter every single week, usually on topics that are, unfortunately, too spicy for here on YouTube. Everything there is, of course, properly sourced, researched, and fact-based, it's just the topics we touch upon, well, the algorithm on YouTube would pick those topics out and censor the episode, if not the entire channel. 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And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times. Stay informed, and most importantly, stay free.