Joe Biden, The ATF, and "Ghost Guns"
Biden’s attempt at banning “ghost guns” may seem trivial to those who aren’t staunch supporters of gun rights, but every new step toward gun control carries with it dangerous implications.
One year ago President Joe Biden, through executive order, announced that he was instructing the Department of Justice to issue new regulations against so-called “ghost guns”, which are firearms that can be fully or partially constructed in one’s own home. That new rule has been making its way through the system ever since and as of April 11, Monday of this week, it has officially been submitted to the Federal Register. While the Biden administration claims this new regulation will help curb gun violence in the U.S., opponents of gun control see it as an infringement of the Second Amendment.
The rule redefines firearms to include frames and receivers which are commonly sold in kits that can be privately assembled into working firearms with the proper parts, tools, and know-how. It requires background checks in order to purchase said kits, and those parts must now include serial numbers. It also requires any Privately Made Firearms (PMFs) sold to licensed dealers to have serial numbers added to them before being resold. This is where the term “ghost guns” comes from, as the lack of serial numbers makes them harder for the government to trace.
According to the Biden administration’s “fact sheet” on the new rule, “there were approximately 20,000 suspected ghost guns reported to the ATF as having been recovered by law enforcement in criminal investigations” in 2021. While that number may sound alarming, “ghost guns” typically only account for a small number of illegal guns encountered by law enforcement, even if they’ve become more common in recent years.
The new regulation also requires gun store owners to retain their records of gun sales until they are no longer in business, at which time they will need to turn those records over to the Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). Up until now, gun stores were allowed to dispose of those records after 20 years. Also according to the White House’s fact sheet, the destruction of those records supposedly causes around 1,300 firearms to be untraceable every year.
The rule will go into effect 120 days after being published in the Federal Register and is sure to face litigation from gun rights organizations. It could also possibly run into other problems due to its confusing language causing a level of uncertainty about what is still technically allowed and what isn’t.
“Biden’s proposal to create a comprehensive national gun registry and end the online sale of gun parts without the passage of a new law exemplifies his disregard for the Second Amendment,” reads a statement from Aidan Johnston, Director of Federal Affairs for Gun Owners of America (GOA), a gun rights organization intent on fighting the new regulation. “Just as we opposed the Trump Administration’s arbitrary ban on bump stocks, GOA will also sue Biden’s ATF to halt the implementation of this rule, whose promulgation violates the Second Amendment, Firearm Owners Protection Act, Gun Control Act of 1968, and Administrative Procedures Act.”
Even if you take Biden’s reasoning for this rule at face value (which is something I would advise against) and support the idea of gun control, the process in which this rule came about deserves scrutiny. The Constitution grants law-making power to the Legislative Branch, not the Executive Branch. Struggling to pass legislation through the slim Democratic majority in Congress is not a justification for the President to sidestep the proper channels, but unfortunately, both major parties have consolidated more and more power in the Executive Branch over the years; which is something they tend to regret once power inevitably shifts to the opposing party.
On the same day that he unveiled his new regulation on “ghost guns”, Biden also announced his nomination of Steve Dettelbach to run the ATF. This is Biden’s second attempt at picking an ATF director, as he withdrew his last nomination of David Chipman once it became obvious that he would fail to get enough confirmation votes in the Senate due to Chipman’s controversial history as a gun control advocate. This current nominee could possibly face similar challenges getting confirmed, although Dettelbach appears to be receiving less criticism from Republican senators than Chipman did, at least for now.
Biden’s attempt at banning “ghost guns” may seem trivial to those who aren’t staunch supporters of gun rights, but every new step toward gun control carries with it dangerous implications. Whether it’s banning bump stocks, pistol braces, or “ghost guns”, every new law and regulation gives the government more power to decide what’s considered a firearm and who’s allowed to own one.
While this new rule may not seem like the most extreme form of gun control, keep in mind that Biden has also consistently called on Congress to pass much more sweeping laws like banning assault rifles despite the type of gun he’s referring to being popular among legal gun owners, and he has also supported red-flag laws despite their conflictions with the right to due process. This new rule is just one step further toward Biden’s overall aspirations regarding gun control.
Not only does this rule decrease law-abiding citizens’ access to purchase the parts to assemble their own firearms, but it also increases the federal government’s access to information about who owns the firearms that remain legal. While those may seem like necessary steps to curb gun violence to some, to myself and others, it’s part of a worrying trend of the state’s growing control over our lives. There is no clear evidence that gun control works to prevent violent crime, it simply keeps guns out of the hands of those who follow the law. What adds insult to injury is that as Biden attempts to limit U.S. citizens’ gun rights, he’s sent hundreds of millions of dollars worth of arms and military aid to support Ukraine in their war against Russia, a conflict that highlights why the Second Amendment is so important.
This new rule surely has some legal battles ahead of it, and Biden’s latest ATF nominee may very well struggle to gain enough support during the confirmation hearings, but that doesn’t take away from the dangers of the President abusing executive authority to impose his will on law-abiding U.S. citizens. Whether you support the concept of banning “ghost guns” or not, we should all be able to view and criticize this situation for what it is: an attempt by President Biden to circumvent the constitutional limits on his power.
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