Table of contents
Background
GOA warned that the Cornyn-Murphy “Compromise” was a mistake. GOA’s analysts realized that any change to the definition of what it meant for a gun dealer to be “engaged in the business” of selling firearms would help the Biden Administration initiate backdoor universal background registration checks (UBCs)[i]—just as Obama had attempted on his last days in office.[ii]
Gun Owners of America again chastised the Republicans responsible for the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act[iii] when President Biden unsurprisingly ordered that the Attorney General initiate a rule change to bring the “U.S. as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation.”[iv] GOA has already announced plans to file a lawsuit to block this rule, but that does not absolve Congress of its responsibility to use every means necessary to defend the Second Amendment.
Congress MUST Fight Back
While Gun Owners of America fights for the Second Amendment in the courts, Congress must repeal the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act[v]—which was a compromise with the Biden Administration that Republicans NEVER should have struck. It has been completely weaponized, gun owners have gained nothing, and America is no safer. Cornyn-Murphy has got to go, and Republicans must expiate for this sin.
SEE ALSO: SAF Hails 5th Circuit Opinion Saying Biden Pistol Brace Rule ‘Likely Illegal’
Congress must also participate in the rulemaking process and voice its opposition to backdoor universal background registration checks during the public notice and comment period alongside GOA members. After commenting during the proposed rule phase, Congress must also take up a joint resolution of disapproval pursuant to the Congressional Review Act and strike down this unconstitutional infringement.
What Do We Know About the Upcoming Rule?
- Universal Background Checks, especially when implemented by executive order, are a blatant infringement—with no basis in the text or history of the Second Amendment.
- The New York Times, which leaked the majority of what is publicly available, stated that the proposal is “expected to be released soon” with a final rule to be published in the “second half of 2024.”[vi]
- Anti-gunners are rebranding private firearm sales as “the gun seller loophole” [vii] and “the growing digital loophole”[viii] to justify executive action—rather than the passage of a new law. The fake “gun show loophole” is “really a passé idea” to Senator Blumenthal now.[ix]
- Failing to register will carry a penalty of up to 5 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.[x]
- Expect anyone who makes “a profit”—perhaps as little as $1—to be prohibited from selling their privately owned firearms without a federal firearms license or a background check.[xi]
- Expect a maximum number of firearms sales that a private citizen may engage in per year without needing a federal firearms license. Anti-gunners want to limit collectors and sellers to five guns or fewer.[xii] An Obama-era regulation would have set the threshold at even one or two gun sales.[xiii]
- At the same time, the Biden Administration will also increase its use of bank records to target gun owners and gun sellers.[xiv]
NOTE: Why are UBCs Registration Checks?
All background checks require the buyer to complete a Form 4473.[xv] This Firearm Transaction Record includes the buyer’s name, address, Social Security Number, and other details about them and their firearm.[xvi]
The Biden Administration has required these records be kept permanently by gun stores,[xvii] and they are scanned into a digital and searchable ATF database when a gun store goes out of business.[xviii] These forms are used to “trace” firearms to their owners and constitute a form of gun registration.[xix]
Forms 4473—transformed by the Biden Administration into permanent gun registration forms—are the only enforcement mechanism for Universal Background Checks, as they would prove who obtained a firearm legally (and has a Form 4473 to prove it) and who did not complete the required registration form (and has therefore violated the law). Universal Background Checks require gun registration, and gun registration leads to gun confiscation.
References
- [i] Johnston. “The Odessa, TX Shooting ISN’T a Reason to Expand “Gun Dealer” Definition”. Gun Owners of America. June 15th, 2022.
- [ii] Johnston. “Sen. Cornyn’s Expanded Gun “Dealer” Definition Mimics Failed Obama Backdoor Universal Background Checks”. Gun Owners of America. June 15th, 2022.
- [iii] Smoloski. “GOA Reacts to Biden’s Executive Order on Universal Background Checks”. Gun Owners of America. March 14th, 2023.
- [iv] “FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces New Actions to Reduce Gun Violence and Make Our Communities Safer”. White House. March 14th, 2023.
- [v] Boebert. “H.R. 3212 – the Shall Not Be Infringed Act”. 118th Congress.
- [vi] Kovaleski and Thrush. “A Craigslist for Guns, With No Background Checks”. New York Times. August 1st, 2023.
- [vii] Moms Demand Action. “This MUST READ @NYTimes piece explains how a loophole in federal gun laws—the gun seller loophole—is allowing people with dangerous histories to avoid background checks when attempting to buy guns from unlicensed sellers—most often online or at gun shows.”. Twitter. August 1st, 2023.
- [viii] Kovaleski and Thrush. “A Craigslist for Guns, With No Background Checks”. New York Times. August 1st, 2023.
- [ix] Ibid.
- [x] “Do I Need a License to Buy and Sell Firearms?” Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
- [xi] Ibid.
- [xii] Johnston. “Sen. Cornyn’s Expanded Gun “Dealer” Definition Mimics Failed Obama Backdoor Universal Background Checks”. Gun Owners of America. June 15th, 2022.
- [xiii] Kovaleski and Thrush. “A Craigslist for Guns, With No Background Checks”. New York Times. August 1st, 2023.
- [xiv] Ibid.
- [xv] 27 C.F.R. 478.124.
- [xvi] “Firearms Transaction Record”. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
- [xvii] Johnston. ATF’s Illegal Gun Owner Registry. 2022. 25.
- [xviii] Ibid. 12-19.
- [xix] “Fact Sheet – eTrace: Internet-Based Firearms Tracing and Analysis”. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. April 2023.
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okay to clear up any confusion in my earlier reply, the answer to the question is CRIMINALS! since they are unaffected by ubc’s or any other laws.
Let’s close the hunter biden loophole.
We can thank these “republicans” for helping to pass this piece of garbage legislation: Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), and Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.). Some participated due to arm-twisting by the Turtle; but others like Romney, Collins, Cornyn, Mikulski, Graham are dyed in the wool RINOS!
Please remember them come the next primary! BTW, as Texans, We will donate to any good republican who chooses to primary RINO Cornyn!
This is the same crap they’ve been trying to push through for years…..including Trump. We have a wanna be Wy state senator(R) who’s husband runs a nation wide gun auction service and they were pushing for this same crap when Trump was. People on our side? They just want the transfer fees off of ALL transactions, disgusting!!! I wish GOA would have been honest in their reporting, EVEN the Republicans have pushed this. Wake up folks!! THE government wants your guns…ALL government, both sides
What private property I own, who I sell it to, and how much I get paid for selling it, is nobody’s business but my own. BATFags and Sniffy Joe can all go f*ck themselves.
In order to stop the endless slaughter of the American people by maniacs with assault rifles the U.S. should follow the lead of all the Industrialized , civilized nations whose laws have worked astronomically better than the lack of such laws in the lawless U.S.
Registration of all firearms which would end the gun show loophole and end all private sales of second hand guns which find their way into the hands of criminals and nut cases. Two different Chicago studies proved beyond all doubt that the average crime gun was at least 13 years old and had been through many hands before being sold to criminals in a second hand gun sale.
Universal Background Checks passed and also enhanced to give Federal Employees more time to check a person’s background as is already done with the NFA listed firearms.
Mandatory mental health tests for all buyers of firearms as well as interviewing friends and co-workers of the purchaser in regards to their past behavior.
Safe Storage laws which would cut way down on quickie smash and grab robberies as well as saving the lives of over 1,300 children a year who are gunned down in the home because of loaded firearms left lying around the house unattended.
Federal mandated Red Flag Laws swooping in immediately on abusive and out of control husbands who threaten their wives and children. It would save thousands of lives a year because the majority of killings are husbands killing their wives proving that you are way less safe with a gun in the home.
But what do gun owners get out of this? More rules, legislation, fees and hassle?
Hard pass.
Hey Declan, why don’t you explain how you wound up on this MB?
As far is the “Industrialized , civilized nations” name the top 3 examples that in your mind best examplify those characteristics?
Explain in detail what the “gun show loophole” means?
Are you aware that criminals are exempt from gun registration as a protection from self incrimination under the 5th Amendment? Still all in? Yeah, I know.
You want all law abiding citizens to register their private property under the threat of prosecution for UBGC’s where all criminals are exempted? No thanks
.
There are restrictions alreay in place to prohibit gun purchases by those who have been adjudicated mentally incompetant by a court of law or other qualified lawful authority, Barry Soetoro already tried denying 2A rights by government bureaucrats.
Smash and grabs are already crimes, so are the cases where children are killed with an unattended firearms by negligent people. Yet you believe that a third law, written in supposed good faith, will prevent these other 2 crimes from occuring?
Not surprised you support red flag laws over due process but maybe we can comprimise and agree that the accused must be allowed to face their accuser. The full weight of both legal and civil law should dangle over both parties heads or no dice, aye?
Kane, our brother in Christ here uses the name dacian, not Declan.
You are better than some of these arguments. The point of safe storage laws is to encourage gun owners to safely store firearms in their homes which discourage access by would-be bandits and confused kids with bad ideas for themselves or others. These are not mere empty laws where petty law enforcement officers can gotcha after the fact. Our Romanian friend here says 1300 kids a year, that’s like 3 a day, every day. Safe storage won’t deter every thief and suicidal teen but it will cut that number significantly.
Why not include Barry Soetero’s middle name? 😛 Don’t most who buy into all that really enjoy invoking that his middle name was taken from the grandson of a great holy man? I mean, even his first name pops up in the OT. There was a guy in the book of Judges, ran around with Deborah. Some even claim Abraham had a donkey with that name.
You actually stumbled on a gem. I hated that a nice Irish name, Declan, would be spewing all this gibberish. But you noticed that he was using a derivative of the name of a Roman emperor, Decius who persecuted the Christians. Excellent find BD.
Dacia predates Christians and their persecution. Dacia was a region and province of the Roman Empire, modern day Romania. The Visigoths fled Dacia ahead of the Huns before sacking Rome and ultimately settling in the Iberian Peninsulain the early 5th Century CE, for example.
“A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie.” – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
We need clarity on what constitutes being in the business of selling firearms! I know several guys who are clearly in the business of selling firearms, of buying firearms only to resell for a profit, at gun shows without an FFL but they are in the grey area of the gun show loophole or whatever they are calling it now. Universal background checks fix a raft of problems, really this is one of the lesser issues universal background checks would address. And really, universal background checks would be rather toothless without registration. But we need to make sure we do this the right way – an executive order would be overturned quickly like with the student loan debt relief. This President has worked with Republicans in Congress once already this term to pass common sense gun violence legislation and this will be the only way to do it again, with reasonable Republicans like my Senator, Cornyn. Any change that comes any other way, no matter how positive, would be reduced to political theatre in the long run.
once again your foreign communist values try to push ideals to subvert our country. Here in the USA what person is going to sell a $200 working firearm legally when they can get 2k+ for the same gun on the black market with no chance of getting caught???
Yes, that is my point about how we need universal background checks backed up by registration. paul gets it, you guys.
nope, never agreed with you! you ain’t smart enough to understand my comment.
Maybe you don’t get your comment? You said that unscrupulous individuals are selling firearms at inflated prices on the black market with no chance of being caught. That is exactly the kind of problem that universal background checks and registration prevent! You argue that a common sense solution won’t fix a problem because the problem exists? Who does not understand which comment now, paul?!?
since i can’t reply to you comment below you communist twit………you just can’t comprehend that the law abiding follow laws and criminals don’t. your ubc’s do nothing to stop the real problem of the criminals, it just gets innocent lives ended while your types play games with your stupid shit and subvert this country and it’s constitution! Hell you can’t even comprehend anything different than what you think. Last thing……..you can’t read my mind and you never ever speak for me like you have just tried to!!!!!
“…I know several guys who are clearly in the business of selling firearms, of buying firearms only to resell for a profit, at gun shows without an FFL but they are in the grey area of the gun show loophole or whatever they are calling it now…”
So, you are saying that people in TX gunshows are so clueless as to the value of firearms that they undercutting the true market value?
Or, are you saying that you know of criminal activity where people are charging above market value to resell firearms on some sort of black market?
I find both assertions very, very hard to believe. Try harder to convince some of us skeptics.
Cornyn is a RINO, and is NOT 2A friendly. He’s even threatened to defect to the Jackass Party recently.
Sir, you need to move to Kalifornia. Since you consider Cornyn as being “reasonable”! I suspect you are probably one of those folks trying to turn Texas Blue!
That’s the dream, isn’t it, William? Turning Texas blue. If Texas ever flips, those wascally wepublicans will have to rework their strategy severely if they ever want to win again at the national level.
There was a book published about 20 years ago, the title was something like “What is the matter with Kansas?” wherein the author explored why residents of Kansas so staunchly supports Republicans when Republicans stand against just about everything that would help them. I think Texas stands on the edge of realising this about itself; when the dam breaks, lots of Texans will wonder why they were bewitched so long to work against their own interests.
Yeah, bring back the good ole days with an LBJ type. Ya know the public face of left that champions Blacks and Women but the private face that hates Blacks and rapes women. the Blacks s
Update on your book review, the Demsheviks abandoned working class America and sell out the US to the technocrats. The miss educated White imbeciles and the block voting Blacks (who were Republicans since Lincoln until FDR offered a bigger bowl of rice) are clinging to the lies of the left.
“… I know several guys who are clearly in the business of selling firearms, of buying firearms only to resell for a profit, at gun shows without an FFL but they are in the grey area of the gun show loophole or whatever they are calling it now…”
Are you saying that there speculation buyers who can manage to purchase several firearms through private transactions that significantly undercut the real market value and then turn a profit by reselling those same firearms at gunshows in Texas?
Maybe a shrewed person could occasionally find an rare, old firearm in nice condition and make some scratch once or twice a year but this is really a none issue. No federal, state or local laws are violated in spirit or in deed. Maybe you are claiming that someone could resell several used plastic striker fired hanguns at TX gunshows for a serious profit? If so, then I can telling from as far away as Chicago that you are selling snake oil. Most FFL’s with a large customer base and a marketing budget have more of these fireams then they can move and a private seller will NOT beat the crowded market.
Maybe you are trying to assert that there is a profitable market for private sales to illegal third parties at gunshows without any sting operations detecting this criminal source? If so, then come out and clearly make the claim. In the past, when I went to gunshows there were are sorts of LE in uniform and undercover, not a great opportunity for illiegal transactions.
Kane, you probably do hang out in gun shops and go to gun shows, I get that.
I can name names in my local region. I worked at several gun shops through my 20s and knew these guys by name. They were always complaining about small scratches on display guns, want us to price match some crazy auction they found on Gunsamerica, price match some gun shop price they said they saw down in your neck of the woods, cruising the red tag clearance guns, just anything they could to knock off the price to buy at a price they think they can resell at for a profit. I knew one guy, bought 8 clearance rifles at once with a 4473 and his CHL and he was at the next gun show with a table, had every one of those rifles for sale, unfired in a box. I went to high school with two of this guy’s kids. This being Texas, he can resell these rifles at gun shows for a profit, no background check, no problem. Totally legal.
You know, talking about selling blocky tupperware for a profit brings to mind a local POLICE CHIEF who used to trade firearms often and would buy combat tupperware from fellow officers and resell often at significant profit but at least he shot and enjoyed these weapons before moving them on.
There is nothing wrong with buying a firearm, shooting it or otherwise using it even if only a few times, deciding you don’t like it and moving on by disposing of it responsibly maybe even for a profit – to a dealer or fellow citizen who undergoes a background check. When you buy a firearm simply for the purpose of reselling it for a profit – and if deny this happens, you don’t know gun guys like you say you do – you are in the business and should have an FFL.
Responsible citizens should want to have confidence that the armed among us have been checked out. Put universal background checks on firearms and borders.
“When you buy a firearm simply for the purpose of reselling it for a profit – and if deny this happens, you don’t know gun guys like you say you do – you are in the business and should have an FFL.”
People buy and sell used guns for profit, I have noticed the used section in all the stores. The blackmarket on firearms (which exists throughout the world including Europe) is the #1 major source for criminals and the prices are at a markup.
I know sometimes a lucky few might find older guns like maybe a Remington bolt action .22 with a nice woodstock that might turn up or maybe a whole collection. Maybe the orginal owner has passed on and the surviving family members do NOT value the firearm. Chances are they are taking it to an FFL but that should NOT be mandated.
You admit that you are calling for UBBC and registration but are only offering anecdotal reasoning. What statistical evidence supports you statements?
Loopholes then a stroke of the pen to gut the 2A