Gun groups slam Biden admin over new ATF rule: ‘Weaponizing every software’

Second Amendment advocates are slamming a new rule from the Biden administration that can require 1000’s of extra firearms sellers throughout the nation to run background checks on consumers at gun reveals or different locations exterior brick-and-mortar shops. 

The rule goals to shut a loophole that has allowed tens of 1000’s of weapons to be bought every 12 months by unlicensed sellers who don’t carry out background checks to make sure the potential purchaser just isn’t legally prohibited from having a firearm. 

The National Association for Gun Rights informed Fox News Digital the new rule will “outlaw virtually all private sales of firearms between individuals.” 

“And as we saw in the Bryan Malinowski case in Little Rock, the ATF is willing to use outrageously excessive force – including murder – to punish violators,” the group’s president, Dudley Brown, stated in a press release. “This rule brings us one step closer to Biden’s dream of Universal Gun Registration enforced by the ATF’s jackbooted thugs.” 

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Customers view semi-automatic weapons on show at a gun store in Los Angeles, California December 19, 2012. (REUTERS/Gene Blevins/File Photo)

The Second Amendment Institute informed Fox News Digital the ATF’s new rule is “another example of them going beyond their statutory authority for political purposes. 

“It infringes upon the rights of law-abiding residents and provides pointless burdens to these in search of to train their Second Amendment rights,” the organization said. 

The Gun Owners of America’s Director of Federal Affairs Aidan Johnston accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing every software of their software field to intimidate, harass, and criminalize gun homeowners with illegal govt actions.”

“This Backdoor Universal Registration Check rule is nothing greater than a transfer to criminalize the sale of a single gun with out a background examine. By doing so, the federal government hopes to make sure that they’re absolutely concerned in every firearm switch, and ultimately the information of all these transfers will find yourself of their information database, which we now have confirmed the existence of by way of FOIA requests, leaks, and congressional inquiry,” Johnston said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

FILE: Assault-style rifles now banned for sale in the state are displayed at Freddie Bear Sports on January 11, 2023 in Tinley Park, Illinois.  (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Second Amendment Foundation founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb called the new rule “a continuation of the Biden conflict on weapons.” 

“It is one other try to get round Congress to make new legal guidelines with out congressional approval,” he said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “The president is claiming this may hold weapons out of the fingers of felons, and he is aware of higher. If historical past has taught us something, it will be that criminals don’t receive the weapons they use by way of professional channels, and that gun management legal guidelines have by no means prevented criminals from acquiring a firearm.” 

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Gottlieb argued that the new rule will only “place yet one more burden on sincere residents eager to train their second modification.” 

The National Rifle Association said in a statement that it is “already working to make use of all means accessible to cease this illegal rule.”

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade group, also has warned of a court challenge if the rule was finalized as written. 

FILE PHOTO: AR-15 style rifles are displayed for sale at a gun store.  (REUTERS/Bing Guan)

Lawrence Keane, the foundation’s senior vice president and general counsel, said Thursday that the organization was reviewing the regulation after contending previously that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was overstepping its legal authority.

The new rule marks the Biden administration’s latest effort to combat gun violence. President Biden has said the measure will “hold weapons out of the fingers of home abusers and felons.” 

“And my administration goes to proceed to do all the pieces we probably can to avoid wasting lives. Congress wants to complete the job and go common background checks laws now,” he said. 

The rule, which was finalized this week, makes clear that anyone who sells firearms predominantly to earn a profit must be federally licensed and conduct background checks, regardless of whether they are selling on the internet, at a gun show or at a brick-and-mortar store, Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters.

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Biden administration officials said they are confident the rule, which drew more than 380,000 public comments, would withstand anticipated lawsuits from gun rights groups.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.