Biden's New ATF Rule Could Open Millions of Lawful Gun Owners to Criminal Prosecution

Spencer Brown reporting for Townhall 

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre kicked off Thursday's briefing by bragging about the Biden administration's supposedly noble efforts to reduce gun violence in the United States and touting a new rule to "save lives by requiring background checks." 

If you listen to Democrats and the mainstream media talk about the new ATF rule, it's a move by Team Biden to close the so-called "gun show loophole." But such a thing does not exist. In standard fare from the Biden White House, the rule is actually about more power for the federal government and greater harassment of law-abiding firearm owners. 

As our friend Cam Edwards over at Bearing Arms explained this week, the Biden administration's new rule "could open millions of gun owners to criminal prosecution as well as diverting the ATF from going after real gun traffickers" by "broadening the definition of who is 'engaged in the business' of selling firearms." 

The truth being ignored by the Biden administration is this: there are already rules for commercial firearm sales that must be followed whether a purchaser is at a gun show, buying online, or in a physical store. 

"Private sales, no matter where they take place, are not subject to background checks," Edwards reminded. "Commercial sales are, no matter where they happen. "More on what will change — for the worse — from Bearing Arms:

Rather than providing gun owners (and gun sellers) with a clear and understandable definition of who is "engaged in the business" of dealing firearms, the ATF is promulgating this incredibly vague rule; not to close a non-existent loophole, but to force as many private sales as possible to go through a background check. If that means that some gun owners end up being charged with federal felonies for offering a single gun for sale, the Biden administration is just fine with that outcome. And if the ATF is flooded with applications from gun owners who decide it's safer for them to get their federal firearms license, it won't be long before the gun control lobby uses that to call for a dramatic increase in agency funding, and crack down on who is eligible to obtain an FFL or both.