PrintWant to sell a gun to your mother? Under Obama's new rules, you'd better get a license
When it comes to gun control, you can trust the government to act not only stupidly, but vengefully as well.
How else can you characterize the requirement being proposed in the president's end run around Congress on guns that if someone sells even only "one or two" guns, he will need a license?
The Obama administration announced during a conference call with reporters Monday evening that the president’s upcoming executive order may require somebody selling even a single firearm to obtain a Federal Firearms License.
During the call White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch explained the details of the order, which will be announced publicly by President Obama Tuesday at 11:40 a.m. The action, officials explained, would include guidance on how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives will now determine who is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms under federal law and, therefore, who is required to obtain a license to sell firearms.
“ATF will make clear that whether you are ‘engaged in the business’ depends on the facts and circumstances,” Jarrett said. “On factors such as: whether you represent yourself as a dealer, such as making business cards or taking credit card statements. Whether you sell firearms shortly after they’re acquired or whether you buy or sell in the original packaging.”
“Numbers are relevant. The ATF and DOJ did not identify a magic number of weapons that makes you engaged in the business because that would limit their ability to bring prosecution.”
Jarret then said that selling as few as “two firearms” could require somebody to obtain a federal firearms license. However, later in the call, Attorney General Lynch revised that number down further. “It can be as few as one or two depending upon the circumstances under which the person sells the gun,” Lynch said.
The federal firearms license application process takes several months to complete and costs a significant amount of money, according to the ATF website.
You get the feeling the Obama administration doesn't much care for law-abiding gun owners. In fact, it despise them. What all of this amounts to is the administration punishing its political opponents by curtailing legal commerce in firearms. Gun collectors who might sell a firearm every couple of years are also in the cross hairs. Even if two collectors want to trade firearms, the ATF has the right to determine if a license is necessary.
The idea that this would somehow make our "children and communities" safer is a cynical joke, and the administration knows it. Gang-bangers are laughing at the notion that it will do anything to prevent violence, while the real illegal gun dealers who sell to them don't give a lick. They will continue their illegal business safe in the knowledge that the ATF will be going after law-abiding citizens rather than looking to bring them down.
