The Biden Administration Continuing Attempts to Make Almost All Private Gun Sales Illegal Through the Legal Flaw of “Intent.”
While the U.S. Justice Department’s new rule redefining who is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms is almost certainly unconstitutional and is an overstep by bureaucrats who seemingly don’t care about the legislative process, some provisions in the rule unrelated to the Second Amendment might be even more problematic. As we told you a few days after the rule was announced, it leaves just enough up for ATF interpretation that it could cover just about anyone selling any firearm anywhere.
In fact, the first circumstance listed by which a person would be considered to be “engaged in the business” simply states, “sells or offers for sale firearms, and also represents to potential buyers or otherwise demonstrates a willingness and ability to purchase and sell additional firearms.” Defining that statement further, the rule states: “The first presumption stated above … does not require that a firearm actually be sold by a person.” (Emphasis added.) Things get even messier when you dig down a little further in the expansive piece of gibberish. The explanation of the rule, provided by the DOJ, repeatedly mentions the phrases “for the purpose of resale” and “with the predominant intent to earn a profit.” To attorney Johanna Reeves of Reeves and Dola, LLP., such criteria could create major problems.
“This might actually be bigger than the Second Amendment because it may go to the heart of the federal government proposing to control individuals based on activity that hasn’t happened yet because of this speculative idea of ‘for the purpose of resale,’” Reeves said in an exclusive interview with Firearms News. “Who is going to decide if there’s a purpose for resale or not? It’s going to be the government, of course. It’s entirely speculative. The government has to get inside someone’s head.
“How can you have a dealer before they sell anything?”
By Mark Chesnut
