On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that all gun dealers now must conduct background checks no matter where or how they sell their merchandise.
The rule was expected to be submitted to the Federal Register by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on Thursday. It will be implemented in 30 days, Politico reported.
“It’s a false choice to suggest that you’re either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away,” Harris insisted. “I’m in favor of the Second Amendment, and I am in favor of reasonable gun safety laws — for example, background checks.”
“Currently, gun stores are required by law to conduct a background check for every gun sale. But, for decades, many dealers who sell weapons someplace other than the traditional gun store — say, for example, a gun show or a flea market or even through social media — have gotten away without conducting background checks. This is the so-called ‘gun show loophole,’” she stated.
Harris then added more items to her gun control checklist: “President Joe Biden and I will continue to call on the United States Congress to have the courage to pass universal background checks, red-flag laws, and an assault weapons ban.”
The idea of implementing red-flag laws — which permit confiscation of forearms if the owner is deemed a threat to themselves or others — on a federal level has been criticized for giving the government too much power.
The Rand Institute stated in January 2023, “Evidence for the effect of assault weapon bans on mass shootings is inconclusive. Evidence that high-capacity magazine bans may decrease mass shootings is limited.”
“The new rule, the most sweeping expansion of firearms background checks in decades, will apply to more than 20,000 individuals engaged in unlicensed gun dealing and affect ‘tens and tens of thousands of gun sales’ each year, an administration official told reporters during a call previewing the announcement,” Politico reported.
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“Today’s Final Rule is about ensuring compliance with an important area of the existing law where we all know, the data show, and we can clearly see that a whole group of folks are openly flouting that law. That leads to not just unfair but, in this case, dangerous consequences,” ATF director Steven Dettelbach stated.
The rule was made possible because of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was passed after the shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The Act broadened the definition of licensed gun dealers and established enhanced background checks for buyers under the age of 21.