Close the Executive Order Loophole! (Oppose ‘Universal Background Checks’)

I’m heading out to the deep water today folks, but bear with me.

The new propaganda term for ending private gun sales is ‘universal background checks‘.  They used to call it the ‘gun show loophole‘.  As others have said before, a loophole is just a law someone doesn’t like.

The first gun I truly owned was a Remington 1100LT 20 gauge, given to me by my father on Christmas day when I was 18.  It was wrapped and under the tree waiting for me to open it.  Ending private firearm transfers means that you would not be able do the same for your child.  Instead you would have to take them to a licensed gun dealer, have them fill out a form 4473 and undergo a FBI background check, and pay the dealer for logging the firearm in the ‘bound book’ and for the transfer ‘service’ before the new owner could have the gun.  Want to give a gun to a friend for self-defense from a crazy ex?  Go to the dealer.  Same for inheriting Grandpa’s old duck gun.  If your family has a collection of guns, each one would require a different form and fee.  It would require government approval and recording of the transfer or disposition of your private property that you have a constitutionally recognized right to own.  The same items you could order through the mail prior to 1968.

Gun dealers are required to keep each of those form 4473’s for 20 years or until they go out of business, at which point the dealer’s records (all 4473’s and the Bound Book, detailing every transfer with description, serial number and customer information is sent to the BATFE) .  Each Federal Firearms License (FFL) is only good for 3 years before it has to be renewed.  Leading up to 1994, the total number of gun dealers in the United States was about 250,000.  Many of them were part-time sellers supplementing their regular income but did not have retail store fronts.  In 1994, the licensing requirements were changed and made more stringent.  Fingerprint cards, photographs, a store front, new storage requirements, minimum annual/quarterly sales requirements and annual inspections all became required and the fees went from $35 for the initial application to $200.  Because of these barriers to establishing and operating a business, the number of FFL holders is now about 50,000; an 80% drop!

Potentially every single one of those dealer records of previous firearm transactions as well as those from any current dealer that goes out of business are or will be part of the database the ATF operates as eTrace which includes (according to Wikipedia)

• Dealer, Importer, and Manufacturer computer, paper or microfilm “Bound Book” Out-of-Business records (including digital files required by ATF Ruling 2008-2),^[5]

• Dealer “Bound Book” records (computer and/or paper) copied or photographed by ATF during annual inspections.

• ATF Form 4473 from dealers copied or photographed during annual inspections and in Out-of-Business records.^[5]

• Multiple Firearm Sales reports (ATF F 3310.4)^[5]

• Dealer “Bound Books” over 20 years old voluntarily sent in to ATF.^[5]

• Certain firearms dealers are required by ATF to report certain used firearms transaction to ATF for entry into the Firearms Tracing System.

• ATF has imposed a requirement (pilot project) to report all dealer multiple sales (2 or more) of all semi-auto rifles with a detachable magazine greater than .22 caliber. (Currently restricted to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas – border states with Mexico).^[15]

So, the question is: What if the ATF make the requirements more stringent again or (worst case) finds ways to not renew licenses at all?  All records would be added to the database.  There are reports of the ATF already copying records of current FFL’s too. Now they will tell you that this database is not registration, it is only for solving crimes.  Well, what if it becomes a crime to own a particular weapon?

This: Registration leads to confiscation. Every. Time.  It’s happened here already.

So while we rally and are calling, writing and emailing our representatives and are joining the NRA in record numbers to oppose any new gun control,  VP Biden says that the Obama Administration is exploring executive orders to ‘combat gun violence.  That’s weasel-speak for “Screw Congress; you peasants will get gun control whether you like it or not.”

Well, I think it’s high time we end the ‘Executive Order Loophole’.