Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., said this week that he will file an amendment to defund and shut down the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' universal background check rule, which he says skirts Congress.
"We're going to defund it," Clyde told Breitbart for a story published Friday.
On Aug. 31, the Justice Department announced the regulation to update its definition of "Engaged in the Business" as a firearms dealer. The executive order (14092) issued by the Biden administration is something that Clyde and gun rights advocates see as an end run on a law that Congress has refused to adopt.
The DOJ and ATF appended the rule to the Safer Communities Act, a bipartisan effort passed in June 2022.
Under the rule, people who sell firearms online or at gun shows would be required to be licensed and run background checks on the buyers before the sales. The bureau estimates that the rule would affect anywhere from 24,500 to 328,000 sellers.
Gun Owners of America (GOA) sounded the alarm weeks ahead of the rule being announced.
"While Gun Owners of America fights for the Second Amendment in the courts, Congress must repeal the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — 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," GOA said in a statement to Breitbart on Aug. 2, weeks ahead of the DOJ announcement.
Clyde then read part of his amendment, which "prohibits the use of funds to implement the ATF's proposed rule entitled 'Definition of Engaged in a Business as a Dealer in Firearms,'" which also would prevent ATF from seeking other funding sources for it.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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