Biden pushes further gun control measures

By Bronson Winslow

President Joe Biden has ushered in a litany of restrictive gun control measures since taking office in 2021, but many of his initiatives are now tied up in court, subject to congressional review or widely opposed by lawmakers.

Through both the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and the administration’s three-letter agencies, Biden has implemented extensive background checks, red flag law funding, pistol stabilizer rules, ghost gun rules and a “zero tolerance” policy for gun dealers; however, much of his work is now subject to congressional review and numerous lawsuits. Amidst legal battles over his current gun agenda, Biden is expected to announce additional gun regulations through Executive Order Tuesday, at the location of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, in January.

“Biden has always had an anti-gun agenda and on this important constitutional issue has never let the courts, public opinion or the Bill of Rights get in his way,” Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) Founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Biden, in collaboration with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive (ATF), has imposed a series of gun restrictions on law-abiding Americans, Federal Firearm License (FFL) holders and gun manufacturers since taking office. In April 2022, the Biden administration, ATF and Department of Justice (DOJ) implemented a final rule for the “frame and receiver” of ghost guns aimed at tracking custom, unserialized firearms.

In November, Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled that the ATF could no longer enforce the ghost gun rule on firearm kit maker Defense Distributed. O’Connor issued a preliminary injunction against the rule, saying it is likely unconstitutional and causes an undue burden on the parts maker, according to the ruling.

“Enforcement efforts upset decades of ATF regulatory precedent against a public that has relied on that historic posture,” O’Connor wrote. “The liberty interests of law-abiding citizens wishing to engage in historically lawful conduct outweighs the Government’s competing interest in preventing prohibited persons from unlawfully possessing firearms.”

In February 2023, following the the ATF’s announcement of the pistol brace final rule, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Second Amendment advocacy group Gun Owners Of America (GOA) filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and ATF saying the rule is “dangerous” and “unconstitutional,” according to a release.

“This is yet another attempt by the Biden administration to create a workaround to the U.S. Constitution and expand gun registration in America,” Paxton said. “There is absolutely no legal basis for ATF’s haphazard decision to try to change the long-standing classification for stabilizing braces, force registration on Americans, and then throw them in jail for ten years if they don’t quickly comply.”

In March, Paxton filed a motion for temporary injunction against the rule.

Since taking office, Biden has instructed the ATF to adopt a “zero tolerance” policy for gun dealers, leading FFL revocations to hit a 16-year high in 2022. The increase in license revocations, 92 in 2022 alone, is due to the new policy and the updated procedure that the ATF follows, as they no longer always go through a multi-step process, often opting to pull licenses for a multitude of “willful” violations.

“That’s not how regulatory agencies are supposed to work in the sector that they’re supposed to regulate. They are supposed to help the companies, they’re supposed to ensure compliance but they’re not supposed to punish and destroy an entire industry based on just political opposition or political distaste,” Gun Owners of America Director of Federal Affairs Aidan Johnston told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In response to the ATF’s ghost gun rule, pistol stabilizer rule and “zero tolerance” policy, Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Thomas Massie requested ATF Director Stephen Dettelbach testify before Congress in April.

“Just last year, the United States Supreme Court held in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency that under the major questions doctrine, ‘given both separation of powers principles and a practical understanding of legislative intent, the agency must point to ‘clear congressional authorization’ for the authority it claims,’” the Reps wrote.

“This ruling raises serious doubts about ATF’s ability to regulate pistol braces absent a clear mandate from Congress,” they added.

Though Biden has not been able to implement a ban on so-called “assault weapons,” it has not stopped his administration from pushing for one. Biden has made the call at multiple events and following several mass shootings in the early months of 2023.

Biden’s repetitive call for so-called “assault weapon” bans has left many Republican lawmakers uneasy, as a coalition of 15 Republican attorneys general sent a letter in February calling Biden out and opposing his plan to target gun rights.

The coalition questioned Biden’s definition of so-called “assault weapons,” further saying that his call for Congress to ban “assault weapons” is both “irresponsible and unconstitutional,” according to the letter. The coalition referred to Biden’s calls for an assault weapon ban “astonishing,” as there are over 100 million semi-automatic handguns and 45 million semi-automatic rifles in the United States possessed by law-abiding Americans.

Though many of Biden’s initiatives are now tied up in court, subject to congressional review or widely opposed by lawmakers, The president is set to announce a new list of gun control executive orders Tuesday at the location of the Monterey Park, California, mass shooting.

“This is just another chapter in Joe Biden’s war on gun rights. It is a diversion to the Democrat failure to keep Americans safe from violent criminals who are released without bail and are free to prey on us all,” Gottlieb told the DCNF.

Other state legislatures have been fighting Biden’s federal war on guns though different means. Missouri and Montana have opposed Biden’s gun agenda by implementing laws that prevent state governments from assisting with the enforcement of any federal gun laws.

Missouri is currently appealing an Obama appointed judge’s decision to strike down the law. The law will remain intact while the state appeals.

In Texas, Republican state Rep. Bryan Slaton had some “fun” with the federal government in February after introducing a House Committee Resolution that informed the federal government that all of the guns in many of Texas’s counties had been tragically lost in a series of alleged boating accidents. The resolution further notified the Biden administration, and any further administration, that any attempt to “buyback, confiscate or register” the firearms, will not be possible or necessary.

“There’s different ways to respond to federal overreach. And, you know, natural emotion, people get upset, angry, but at some point, my thoughts is, if they’re going to be disrespectful, maybe we should have fun with them,” Slaton told the DCNF. “In a day and time where people can claim to be anything they want and don’t need facts, well okay, fine. We had a series of alleged boating accidents.”

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Image courtesy of Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife

5 thoughts on “Biden pushes further gun control measures

  1. Yesterday I was curious about what was happening about the northeast. So I stopped in two different gun stores and in both there were people purchasing weapons because they feared the criminals being let loose by the woke mob. It was an eye opener for what is happening in what was once a free country.

  2. From the book, When The Center Held by Donald Rumsfeld 2018

    In 1975, President Ford was left to manage the difficult ending of the Viet Nam War.
    President Ford went to congress for a relief package to allow American personnel and our allies to evacuate. However, there was one US Senator who opposed any such support. The result was the embarrassing and hurried evacuation from the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon.

    This senator reveled in the embarrassment and did everything he could to leverage it politically against Ford. Despite the efforts of this senator, President Ford managed to rescue 1,500 South Viet Nam allies prior to the country’s fall. Had President Ford not acted quickly, these people would have been targeted and slaughtered for their support for America. When they arrived in America, President Ford asked Congress for a package to assist these refugees to integrate into American society.

    That same troublesome Senator torpedoed any support for these shell shocked, anti communist, Americans and our helpers, the refugees.

    Instead President Ford had to recruit Christian organizations to offer assistance on a voluntary basis. As he did so, the Senator belittled those efforts. What kind of person would oppose President Ford’s tireless work to do the right and humanitarian thing?
    Who would want to play politics with the well-being of innocent people who stood by America in the tragic Viet Nam War?

    THAT SENATOR WAS JOE BIDEN

    Joe Biden the guy who left 358,530 AR16/M4s and other types of Rifles, 126,295 – Pistols and 64,363 SAWs Squad Automatic Weapons ( Machine Guns) for a total of 549,118 small arms to the Taliban and sent tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine. Then swapped basketball player Brittney Griner, a traitor who kneels for our national anthem and does not want it played before sporting events for Russian arms dealer The Merchant of Death, Viktor Bout who sold tens of thousands of AK47s to terrorists to kill Americans with is telling the American people why we shouldn’t be able to own semiautomatic weapons. When are people going to wake up and see the hypocrisy of these anti constitutionalists. They are the real insurrectionists and domestic enemies of our Constitution.

    “When government takes away citizens right to bear arms it becomes citizens duty to take away governments right to govern”. – George Washington

  3. I will abide by his illegal mandate just like i did with his vax one… no F’n way. He can no longer get the congress to help with 2nd amendment infringement laws so is stuck just mandating which won’t hold up in court. have at it potato head FJB…

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