Court Upholds South West Border Multiple Gun Sales Reporting

pile of ar15 rifles
Court Upholds South West Border Multiple Gun Sales Reporting
National Shooting Sports Foundation
National Shooting Sports Foundation

NEWTOWN, Conn –-(Ammoland.com)- The Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld ATF’s authority to require federal firearms licensees in the Southwest Border States to report multiple sales of certain semiautomatic rifles.

The appellate decision stems from a lawsuit brought by an NSSF-backed retailer and another store owner arguing ATF overstepped the authority granted it by Congress when it issued its July 2011 demand letter mandating nearly 8,700 FFLs in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas to report sales information they were not otherwise required to keep.

A district court denied the challenge and an appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals followed.

This was the last of two lawsuits supported by NSSF challenging the limits of ATF’s 2011 demand letter.

In NSSF’s own lawsuit, NSSF v. Jones, it was also found that ATF did not abuse its authority.

About NSSF 

The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 6,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. For more information, log on to www.nssf.org.

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DrSique

And, in further news, the number of straw firearm purchases, along the southern border, has dropped dramatically since the federal government ended it’s participation in the practice. Mexican drug cartels have lodged a formal protest claiming a breach of contract by the BATFE, which these cartels claim had sworn to deliver thousands more weapons. Of course, the unforseen murder of Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry, raised some concern over the practice of the federal government supplying arms to criminal gangs. Under the current administration, many agencies are promising to find other ways to undermine U.S. Law, possibly ending the lives… Read more »

BlackDog

I suspect this could be challenged as unconstitutional on the grounds that it is illegal to single out individuals or entities and require different rules for some and not others. For example, if whites were allowed to buy weapons but not blacks or hispanics or American indians. It is not a ‘state’ issue, rather a Federal issue, and I don’t believe that can be enforced.

Janek

ATF needs the numbers from multiple sales in order to somehow justify the creation of ‘Operation Fast and Furious’.