Press Releases

As crime continues to skyrocket in cities across the country due to the Defund the Police movement and Far-Left policies, President Biden has chosen to attack law-abiding Americans exercising their Second Amendment right. The targeting of so-called “ghost guns” will only make our communities worse off. A ban on privately made firearms will allow the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to expand their definition of a firearm and subject many law-abiding firearm owners to more burdensome regulations and duplicative background checks. These efforts will not prevent criminals from breaking the law.

“GHOST GUNS” AND THE NEW DOJ RULE:

• “Ghost guns” is a term intended to conjure up images of an uncontrollable firearms but in reality, it is nothing more than a firearm a private citizen legally assembled with individual parts or kits for his or her own use.
• Despite President Biden’s claims that they are a weapon of choice for violent criminals, these firearms were used in less than 0.36% of homicides between 2016 and 2020.
• These firearms are predominantly a hobbyist option and require more time, tooling, and dedication to craftsmanship than most criminals are willing to invest. Criminals scratch out the serial numbers, they don’t take the time to build a gun and take it to a gun store to have a serial number engraved on it.
• According to the White House, the Department of Justice rule will:
  • Ban the business of manufacturing most privately made firearms without serial numbers or background checks,
  • Redefine ‘buy build shoot’ kits, and various parts, as firearms to expand ATF regulations, and
  • Add additional barriers for Federal Firearm Licensees (FFLs), or gun stores, to resell privately made firearms.
• Additionally, Biden announced new requirements for FFLs to expand their record-keeping and retain records beyond the current 20-year standard. This new rule establishes a federal firearm registry by forcing FFLs to keep all firearm records until the end of licensed activity.

ITS SIMPLE: Rather than weaponizing the ATF to violate the Second Amendment right of law-abiding Americans, President Biden and House Democrats should start enforcing the laws we already have and turn their attention to the real threat facing our communities: the explosion of violent crime and increasingly emboldened criminals.

Rep. Michael Cloud has introduced H.R. 6945, the No Retaining Every Gun In a System That Restricts Your Rights Act, which would allow ATF to delete all existing firearm transaction records and require FFLs to destroy their firearm transaction records once they go out of business. A one-pager on this legislation can be found HERE.