Late last week the ATF released their “final rule” on changing the definition of what a gun dealer is, and now that I’ve had a chance to dig into some of the details, I wanted to tell you about it right away.
It’s bad.
The ATF’s new rule change is so bad that it gets the gun-grabbers on the Radical Left about 95% of the way toward NATIONAL GUN REGISTRATION without any politician needing to cast a vote.
King George would be proud of them.
The main attack in the ATF’s decree is its redefinition of what a “gun dealer” is.
Historically (and until this “rule change” goes into effect permanently when it is printed in the federal register), the definition of a firearms dealer “engaged in the business” was two-pronged.
Previously, a gun dealer was someone who 1) derived their livelihood from selling firearms and 2) made a profit in doing so.
That has all changed now.
Under this new bureaucratic edict, the ATF has replaced that two-pronged standard with one: the “intent to obtain pecuniary gain.”
(Pecuniary, of course, means “consisting of or relating to money.”)
In plain English, every single firearms transaction has a “pecuniary gain.”
I’ve never met a firearm seller yet who did not want to get a fair price for the firearm they were selling. Many people deliberately buy firearms as assets and plan on them appreciating in value.
Every single firearm transaction has a “pecuniary gain” function.
But it gets worse: the ATF pegged pecuniary gain to the single word, “intent.”
The use of the word “intent” in the definition blows the door wide open for the ATF to be able to go after anyone, anywhere, and at any time.
If you ever try to sell a firearm at any time or for any reason, no matter what price you charge, you can be charged for a federal firearms crime.
Even worse, you don’t even need to have actually obtained “pecuniary gain” in order to be charged with the “crime” of being a “gun dealer” under their new decree.
If the fed bois drag you into court on one of these trumped-up charges, it will not be sufficient for your legal defense team (which you are paying your life savings to) to simply demonstrate to the court that you did not obtain actual pecuniary gain, your lawyers will have to disprove the federal government’s claim that you intended to obtain pecuniary gain.
The ATF claims they have decided they will not use this bureaucratic rule switch to go after “legitimate” private sellers or private collectors, but there is zero ability for the average gun owner to hold them to this.
The first you’ll know about it is fifteen minutes before your morning alarm goes off when your front door is being breached by a tactical team at 5:45 in the morning.
That’s exactly what happened, in fact, to a guy named Bryan Malinowski from Little Rock, Arkansas.
Over the period of several years, Bryan bought and sold about 150 firearms, and the ATF didn’t like that.
(NOTE: Yes, this is the same ATF that sold guns to the Mexican drug cartels in Operation Fast and Furious which resulted in United States Border Patrol agents getting murdered)
So instead of contacting Bryan or his lawyers and notifying him that he was under investigation, or even showing up at his house at 8:00 in the morning and politely knocking and announcing they had a search warrant, they no-knock raided his home early in the morning.
Bryan, hearing no verbal indication that they were law enforcement (and this was confirmed by the neighbor’s surveillance system), assumed his home was being invaded and took action to defend his home and family.
Of course, the SWAT team shot him, and now Bryan Malinowski is dead.
And Malinowski wasn’t some shady gang-banger, either. He held a white-collar job as an executive at the Little Rock airport.
This lawless ATF rule change is a sweeping power grab that Republicans in Congress cannot be relied upon to stop.
Quite frankly, the majority of Republican members of Congress have proven themselves to be totally inept and stupid at being the effective warriors for freedom we need them to be.
That’s why Georgia Gun Owners is gearing up to meet this threat in the courts.
We are still weighing which path we are going to take, and whether we file a lawsuit ourselves or whether we join a lawsuit with amici, one thing is clear:
The ATF and the Department of Injustice need a political and legal @$$-beating for this lawlessness, and we’re going to help make sure they receive one.
Please donate whatever amount you can afford to this effort right away.
HELP US DRAG BIDEN INTO COURT!
This needs to be struck down because National Gun Registration is the precursor to National Gun Confiscation.
I know it is hard for people like you and me to ever imagine things getting so bad in America that the Radical Left would ever attempt confiscation, but it has been done by tyrants in the past.
And when they do, they will only do it under the color of “law,” which is why they are constantly shrilling on television about “democracy.”
The very fact that they are changing these “definitions” via bureaucratic decree shows plainly that the Radical Left has the intent to try to attempt national gun confiscation someday.
They need a legal shield to hide behind while they do it, however, and that’s what this rule change is all about.
The bad news for them, of course, comes in threes:
- We are a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy, which means that mob rule does not determine public policy; and
- Americans own 120 guns for every 100 citizens; and
- Americans hate tyranny. Just ask the British.
And because America is a Constitutional Republic, we’re going to drag Joe Biden’s administration into court and do everything we can to make sure this tyranny gets overturned peacefully.
We’ll have more info about the legal steps we’ll be taking soon, but please help us build up our legal war chest NOW!
For Freedom,
Aaron Dorr
Executive Director
Georgia Gun Owners