AmmoLand News partnered with data scientist Wes Scoggin to analyze the public comments on the proposed rule that would redefine who the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) considers a “gun dealer.”
The new rule is a backdoor to universal background checks. Anyone who sells a gun and makes a profit could potentially require a federal firearms license (FFL). Also, the ATF could consider anyone selling more than one of a single type of firearm to be a gun dealer. The ATF claims that the Bi-partisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) gives them the authority to change the rules surrounding dealers.
The BSCA was a bill passed through Congress with the support of Republicans such as John Cornyn and was signed into law by President Joe Biden. It has been the centerpiece of the President’s gun control agenda. Republicans ignored warnings from pro-gun groups that the Democrats would exploit the law.
The comment section of previously proposed ATF rules has been overwhelming pro-gun. This time, support of the proposed rule is lopsided in favor of the ATF change. Currently, over 96% of the comments implore the Government to enact the new rule.
The disparity between the comments for the proposed rule and those against the new rule could be for a few different reasons. One reason could be that gun owners do not believe their comments will make a difference. Although a great majority of public comments on the last two ATF rules opposed the changes, the ATF ignored many of the concerns and enacted new restrictions on the rights of Americans.
Mr. Scoggin and AmmoLand News investigated the comments to see why the statistics are so lopsided in favor of the new rule. The discovery shows that the vast majority of the comments favoring the ATF proposed rule were identical.
We tracked down the text of the comments to an Astroturf campaign by Brady United. Ninety-eight percent of the comments backing the change read:
“I strongly support the proposed rule to ensure that individuals who are ‘engaged in the business’ of selling firearms are licensed, thus requiring them to complete background checks for all firearm sales and maintain records of those transactions, and that dealers who have lost their licenses may no longer sell firearms to the public. A recent study found that more than 1 in 5 gun sales in the U.S. are conducted without a background check, amounting to millions of off-the-books gun transfers annually; many of these transactions are facilitated by individuals who profit from the repetitive sale of firearms yet avoid the necessary oversight required of licensed dealers.
“This is a public health and safety issue, and I urge the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to finalize the rule in order to prevent firearm transfers to prohibited purchasers and ensure that individuals who are selling guns for profit are licensed, regulated, and engage in responsible business practices.”
The anti-gun group launched an email campaign on September 9, which coincides with the bump to the pro-gun control comments.
The email contains a link that allows anyone on its mailing list to submit a comment to the Federal Register by just filling out their name and clicking a single button. Brady runs the campaign through a website plugin called “fastaction.” The whole process takes the user less than 30 seconds to complete.
“It seems that this go-round that the anti-gun organizations are showing up early to flood the comments on the new ATF docket,” Scoggin told AmmoLand. “With their ‘fastaction’ branded one-click comment scheme, it would seem there is an effort to outpace any opposing comments to the rule change. There seemed to be an emerging trend at the end of last year’s public comment window for the Frame and Brace dockets. We saw a spike in what appeared to be canned responses from these same groups, and that seems to be the case from the very beginning of this docket posting last year in the gun-related docket comment periods that have accelerated from the beginning of the comment window.”
The rule will most likely happen no matter what the final statistics show. The danger of not commenting is that the Biden Administration will exploit the lopsidedness of the comments to argue in court that most Americans support the change. Even though interest balancing is supposed to be a thing of the past after the Bruen decision, judges might still be subconsciously or even consciously persuaded by the statistics.
Not all hope is lost. The comment period is still open, and gun owners can make their voices heard. AmmoLand News strongly encourages its readers to send a message to the ATF and the Biden Administration that the rule should not go into effect. We might not be able to stop the change, but we can take away a talking point from the anti-gun side and prevent the Brady Astroturf campaign from succeeding in cooking the books.
AmmoLand has prepared a comment that readers can submit to the ATF. If you choose to write your own comment, remember to stick to the facts, as they are always on gun owners’ side.
“I strongly oppose the proposed rule that redefines who is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms. The new rule will burden American gun owners by creating a grey area where they can inadvertently break the law.
The new requirement circumvents Congress by creating a de facto universal background check rule. Congress has chosen to leave background check laws for private gun sales to the state governments. This rule will override the authority of the states with overburdensome federal regulations and strip state’s rights.
The regulation will not make us any safer. The vast majority of guns used in crimes are stolen. States that have enacted universal background checks did not see any reduction of crimes committed with firearms. I strongly encourage the government to work on real solutions to solve the epidemic of violent crime and stop using firearms as a scapegoat for failed policies.”
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
like the last election…
identical photocopied ballots pulled out of underneath a table cloth covered table at 3am from a suit case…
Nothing to see here, they said…
I never heard an explanation for that video, did you?
Demokrat SOB’s can French kiss my ass.
The Woodforest Reserve is talkin’!.
Or little clues like this: Biden after 2 years has 28.5M followers on Twitter (X). Trump is kicked off Twitter. Musk reinstates him back in and in seven days Trump goes from ZERO to 87 MILLION followers. Yep, I believe Chairman Xiden of the CCP was voted in. MY A$$!
Amazing what can be done with w computer now-a-days. AND I for one, don’t believe the BATF give a hoot in hell about comments submitted by pro gun folks!
to do nothing tho only shows impotence.
If a firearm appreciates in value, I’m supposed to sell it at less than market value because I’m making a profit? Since when does the federal Government have any say in what fair market value something has, be it a firearm, car or an antique desk.
I urge all of you to write a letter to the ATF on the proposed rule. Go point by point explaining how it does NOTHING to prevent prohibited persons from acquiring a firearm, their stated goal of doing away with private sales.
I think we all know their “stated” goal is not their true goal, with this or any other “rule” they invent into law – illegally.
Did anyone really believe the Biden Zombies would sit this one out?
I may burn in hell for it, but I hate them.
No, you’ll have a special seat at the right hand of God for hating those slime.
I wish it were so.
When they pole a certain demographic they can get the pole results they desire . Try polling q bunch of gun owners and I bet the pole will show the opposite results thier pole showed . What a bunch of clowns. Nobody with a brain is fooled , only stupid liberals buy thier crap .
Exactly, that’s why we need to infect their stupid polls with intelligent responses. We need to engage them in their turf. Not because we are going to change their minds, we won’t, but there’s many who don’t know the issues and when they read a one sided poll because we refuse to interact, then the uniformed follow the communists lead. We need to counter every one of these with common sense answers, give the uniformed options, then these polls will lose their value.
Why are there more comments approving the proposed “rule” than there are viewings of said rule?
because way too many firearm owners will sit on their hands and DO NOTHING but gripe.
American politics is NOT a spectator sport. get involed and DO SOMETHING.
People don’t get involved because most have a skeleton in their closet, or they don’t want to be on a list of some kind or other.
Can’t blame them, nobody wants their dirty laundry aired out in public.
Once I get too old to give a fu*k, or too old to embarrass my kids, I might run for office. Maybe I wait until I have alzheimer’s, can’t be any worse than some of them stupid-assed, non-commonsense asshats in D.C.
i have a few skeletons today and im pretty sure im already on multiple lists but i also have the wisdom to know DOING NOTHING is absolute failure.
Myself.
Kind of tricky, huh?
Not reading proposed rule, may not even care. It is just bots stuffing ballots, to bend the results to someones favor.
Just like the bots did, to get senile Biden elected.
Your question may have been rhetorical, but I’ll bite… The supposed comments received are nothing more than phony props provided in mass quantities by the likes of the gun-grabbing groups.
The sock puppet army strikes again!
🙂
They will fIush your comments. We will fIush their “ruIe”. So-called “rules” are NOT laws. RuIes were meant to be broken.
That is Truth, Justice, and the American Way!
Way back when commenting on last two over-reaches, I remember reading that they do not count duplicate letters. Does this only apply to those who oppose governmental over-reach? Should they not just be tossing all those duplicate form letters uploaded by brain-dead anti-rights people? As with previous issues – write your own letter, though you can grab ideas and talking points from any of our professional pundits. Heck just take sample letter above and reword a paragraph or two. Make your letter unique in some way – so that they have to read it. Like many I expect that aft… Read more »
Okay, battle on. Where’s the links for us who oppose the rule? The antis help their brain numbed supporters load these comments, where’s the pro gun groups links? Come on man!
Here’s the link Mr. Crump highlighted in his article. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/09/08/2023-19177/definition-of-engaged-in-the-business-as-a-dealer-in-firearms
Go there and leave a comment, then pass and post the link everywhere.
Thank you
Looking more and more like some brain dead zombie anti 2a turds are down voting comments on here.
On September 9, I received a text message from Gun Grabbing Giffords asking me to submit a comment on the rule. What a coincidence that Brady was doing the same thing. Hmm. Well, I didn’t quite agree with their proposed comment, and wrote my own instead. Even gave my name and info. Hope it’s enough to get me on the list.
If you comment here in a pro 2A way, you’ve been on a list. Reads like you just might like to be left alone.
No. No. I am done commenting. I am through with trying to vote our way out of tyranny. I am done with writing, calling, emailing my ” representatives”, useless sacks of shit most of them are (lookin’ at you Cornyn). The next team of BUTTF special agents shows up at my door, bring the same number of body bags. You can just burn my house down with me inside it. If you are Christians (doubtful) you will let my wife leave with my dogs (alive).
Yeah, Cornyn is very close to the top of the worthless POS senator list!. He interned under another RINO, Kay Bailey Hutchson and now is busy kissing the feat of the herd RINO McConnell! I hope and pray a good Texas conservative primaries him next time!
Cornyn has said he does not intend to run again. My fear is that we get another rino, who is unknown, uninspiring and unexciting. Mr O’Rourke will run against the unknown republican with McConnehey’s (sp?) backing. With all the immigrants we are getting – I fear large numbers of coastal refugees buying into the fake mexican’s nonsense. Things could go either way in 2026 – far better than Cornyn (pretty low bar) – or far worse. We need to be working on finding and supporting a real gun-sense candidate who supports gun-safety (from rust and politicians). Not sure of age… Read more »
I feel your pain Roland. While my district House Rep always votes “right”, he alone cannot sway the outcome. My state’s senators are quite different. One I’ve yet to receive a reply, the other will reply, usually within a couple months, with a canned letter full of left-wing talking notes, often not even on point thus not addressing my concerns. It’s futile at best and it seems insane to keep trying the same thing while expecting a different outcome. While these comments concerning a proposed rule by the Bastards, Asshats, Tyrants, Fu**heads and Excrement are not directly addressed to our… Read more »
My Rep. Is like that. I ask about specific gun issue X, Y or Z, and I get a response telling me all about the latest rotary club meeting or tractor salesman’s convention he ate a chicken dinner at.
Sounds like you just want to be left alone!
Yunh hunh!
Cornyn is much like Tester here in Montana. A bought and paid for POS. Just with a different letter after their name. Regardless of the party they join, they just follow the orders that their masters issue to them.
So what it all boils down to is that if I’ve amassed a fortune in firearms in the past 50 years of my life and I decide I want to sell off my collection, I’m a “gun dealer”? WTF kind of idiocy is that? They can decide whatever they want I guess, but this is what they may be up against…by the hundreds of thousands… “The most terrifying force of death, comes from the hands of men who wanted to be left alone. They try, so very hard, to mind their own business and provide for themselves and those they… Read more »
Josey Wales? John Lee Pettimore?
Thanks for the “Federal Register” link. No, Ammoland comment sas it all…copy and paste took about 10 seconds with the name and address fill-in.
Anyone that believes ATF will take pro-gun commentaries seriously needs to put down the crack pipe. ATF will make up any excuse to discount pro-gun advocates.
but… if the anti’s outnumber us with comments, every scum democrat politician will use this against us again and again in the near term future. it only took me two minutes to post my comment. e z peasy.
John, you need to fix the story headline, add “from the anti-gun people”
To the end of it.
Hey, why no link to the atf comment section ??
Any why no fastract that we can use just like the anti-gun people ??
the link is posted above. can you not read?
Sorry, but I need to keep repeating this here on Ammoland, and across numerous other sites. DO NOT leave comments on ATF open comment area/site. The ATF wants good smart people to comment, so that they can craft their sheet words against you. Best to let the ATF dummies craft their own crap, it makes it easier for Pro-2A to challenge in the courts. We know all the anti gun folks simply talk crap, so let ATF have a pile of crap to work with. You should also know, ATF doesn’t really care so much about public comments, the public… Read more »
were you always such a coward? doing nothing only helps the other side. we witnessed the same kind of cowardice in 1993/94 right before the 94 AWB passed thru Congress and signed under Clinton.