The Department of Justice (DOJ) proposed a rule Thursday that would tighten regulations on private gun sellers.
The regulations would change the current definition of an “arms dealer” from someone who sells guns as a living to instead including anyone selling guns for a profit, whether in a store, gun show, flea market, at home, over the internet or any other public or private marketplace, according to the notice.
Anyone engaged in those activities would have to receive a license from the federal government and would also have to run a background check on any person purchasing a gun from them, a press release says.
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“The Gun Control Act’s exceptions to the license requirement exist to allow all law-abiding Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights – not to facilitate the intentional evasion of the background-check system,” Steven Dettelbach, the director of the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), said in the press release. “This new proposed rule would clarify the circumstances in which a person is ‘engaged in the business’ of dealing in firearms, and thus required to obtain a license and follow the laws Congress has established for firearms dealers.”
This proposed rule will use the definitions for gun dealers that Bipartisan Safer Communities Act established in 2022, according to the press release. The law would effectively apply to most gun sales because it does not impose a “minimum threshold number of firearms” individuals would have to sell to qualify them as an arms dealer, according to the notice.
“[E]ven a single firearm transaction or offer to engage in a transaction, when combined with other evidence (e.g., where a person represents to others a willingness to acquire more firearms for resale or offers more firearms for sale), may require a license,” the notice said.
President Joe Biden requested the rule in an executive order released in March that aimed to push the United States toward a universal background check system for guns, The Hill reported.
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The Supreme Court upheld Biden’s ban on ghost guns in August, expanding the definition of firearms to include frames and gun parts kits. Biden also called on Congress in his 2023 State of the Union Address to “finish the job and ban assault weapons,” according to a transcript of the speech.
Gun Owners of America (GOA), a group that advocates for Second Amendment rights, said that its attorneys would review the rule and potentially file a lawsuit against the ATF and DOJ, according to a social media post from the group.
The public will have 90 days to comment on the proposed rule after it has been published to the Federal Register, according to the press release. The rule will go into effect after the 90 days are over.
GOA and the DOJ did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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