On Monday, FBI Director Kash Patel was reportedly sworn in as acting chief of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired ATF chief counsel Pamela Hicks, saying, “These people were targeting gun owners. Not going to happen under this administration.”
In March 2023, the Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs and the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance discussed with expert witnesses how the ATF under the Biden administration reversed guidance that protected gun owners. The committee said the ATF was “potentially subjecting individuals and small businesses to felony prison sentences and exorbitant fines if they do not comply with a new final rule.”
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) pointed out that the ATF’s final rule targeted law-abiding gun owners while violent criminals who never registered their illegally obtained firearms were not targeted. He asked attorney Matthew Larosiere, “Do folks that kill other people apply for permits when getting a gun?”
“Certainly not in my experience,” Larosiere responded.
“Do criminals go out to their local gun shop and fill out the paperwork, and pray to the good lord that they’re not found out to be criminals when they purchase a gun,” Perry pressed. “I think it would be odd for them to do that, so no,” Larosiere answered.
In May 2024, over 20 states sued the Biden Department of Justice and the Biden administration ATF, accusing them of rewriting the definition of which people were required to become a federal firearms licensee. “Until now, only those who repetitively purchased and sold firearms as a regular course of business had to become a licensee,” they wrote. “But through the Final Rule, defendants will now presume that anyone who sells or resells even one firearm with the intent to profit (no matter how little), combined with other (nebulously defined) evidence, is a firearms dealer who must become a licensee. This would put innocent firearms sales between law-abiding friends and family members within the reach of federal regulation. Such innocent sales between friends and family would constitute a felony if the seller did not in fact obtain a federal firearms license and perform a background check.”
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[[{“value”:”
On Monday, FBI Director Kash Patel was reportedly sworn in as acting chief of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired ATF chief counsel Pamela Hicks, saying, “These people were targeting gun owners. Not going to happen under this administration.”
In March 2023, the Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs and the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance discussed with expert witnesses how the ATF under the Biden administration reversed guidance that protected gun owners. The committee said the ATF was “potentially subjecting individuals and small businesses to felony prison sentences and exorbitant fines if they do not comply with a new final rule.”
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) pointed out that the ATF’s final rule targeted law-abiding gun owners while violent criminals who never registered their illegally obtained firearms were not targeted. He asked attorney Matthew Larosiere, “Do folks that kill other people apply for permits when getting a gun?”
“Certainly not in my experience,” Larosiere responded.
“Do criminals go out to their local gun shop and fill out the paperwork, and pray to the good lord that they’re not found out to be criminals when they purchase a gun,” Perry pressed. “I think it would be odd for them to do that, so no,” Larosiere answered.
In May 2024, over 20 states sued the Biden Department of Justice and the Biden administration ATF, accusing them of rewriting the definition of which people were required to become a federal firearms licensee. “Until now, only those who repetitively purchased and sold firearms as a regular course of business had to become a licensee,” they wrote. “But through the Final Rule, defendants will now presume that anyone who sells or resells even one firearm with the intent to profit (no matter how little), combined with other (nebulously defined) evidence, is a firearms dealer who must become a licensee. This would put innocent firearms sales between law-abiding friends and family members within the reach of federal regulation. Such innocent sales between friends and family would constitute a felony if the seller did not in fact obtain a federal firearms license and perform a background check.”
“}]]
