The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is in the process of formulating a new regulation aimed at governing private gun sales and mandating FBI background checks, as per a whistleblower organization that previously represented IRS agents in the Hunter Biden case.
Empower Oversight, the group in question, has communicated in a letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland that such an action would be considered an “unconstitutional” assertion of power. Furthermore, the group asserted that it had been informed of this forthcoming rule by two different sources.
The letter said that the ATF was directed by the White House to make the change and “has drafted a 1,300-page document in support of a rule that would effectively ban private sales of firearms from one citizen to another by requiring background checks for every sale,” Just the News reported.
Empower Oversight has contended that it holds the belief that only Congress has the constitutional authority to enact such a change, citing a 1986 law that explicitly prohibited background checks for firearm sales between private individuals.
“Such an expansive rule that treats all private citizens the same as federal firearms licensees would circumvent the separation of powers in the Constitution, which grants ‘all legislative Powers’ to Congress while requiring that the President ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’” the letter said.
“To the extent such a rule prevents the private sale of firearms, it would also clearly violate the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which declares that ‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,’” it added.
The group pointed out that the rule could potentially result in confrontations between ATF agents and private citizens, citing two violent incidents from the 1990s that originated from federal raids as examples.
“The lessons of the Ruby Ridge and Waco standoffs should make clear that attempting to enforce such an expansive regulation could endanger countless ATF field agents who are forced to serve as the face of the Biden Administration in going after private firearms owners for constitutionally-protected firearms sales,” the letter noted.
In March, President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring the federal government to “clarify the definition of who is engaged in the business of dealing in firearms, and thus required to become Federal firearms licensees in order to increase compliance with the Federal background check requirement for firearm sales.”
He admitted at the time his goal was to “move us as close as we can to universal background checks.”
