By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Opposition is lining up against President Joe Biden’s latest gun control gambit, announced this week, which will expand background check requirements to apply to private sales.
The Second Amendment Foundation came out swinging with a statement accusing Biden of making “another attempt to get around Congress to make new laws without congressional approval.”
SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb called the new rule, announced by the White House Thursday, “a continuation of the Biden war on guns.”
Fox News is reporting the National Association for Gun Rights says Biden’s new requirement will “outlaw virtually all private sales of firearms between individuals.”
According to Fox, the Second Amendment Institute said the new rule is “another example of them going beyond their statutory authority for political purposes.”
Aidan Johnston, federal affairs director at Gun Owners of America, told Fox News, “This Backdoor Universal Registration Check rule is nothing more than a move to criminalize the sale of a single gun without a background check. By doing so, the government hopes to ensure that they are fully involved in every firearm transfer, and eventually the records of all those transfers will end up in their records database, which we have confirmed the existence of through FOIA requests, leaks, and congressional inquiry.”
READ MORE: Biden’s New ‘Rule’ Expanding Background Checks Draws Criticism
Randy Kozuch, head of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, is quoted at The Outdoor Wire, stating, “This latest Biden Administration attack on law-abiding gun owners is a blatant attempt to coerce Americans to forego legal activity with firearms under threat of potential confiscation of their lawfully acquired and constitutionally protected property. The Administration has conceded that it cannot enforce this unlawful rule in criminal cases because they know that it exceeds the limited authority granted to them by Congress and, in some cases, expressly contradicts the statutory text. NRA is already working to use all means available to stop this unlawful rule.”
Andrew Gottlieb, managing director at the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said in a prepared statement there is no evidence such an expansive plan would reduce violent crime.
“This is another misguided policy that will not accomplish what the administration claims its goal is,” said Gottlieb. “It will not reduce violent crime or make anyone safer. It is an infringement on the rights of honest citizens and a distraction from policies that target criminals.”
Biden’s rule, scheduled to take effect in 29 days, was detailed in a lengthy “fact sheet” published by the White House Thursday. The Biden-Harris administration is claiming that this new rule “that will save lives by reducing the number of firearms sold without background checks.”
Second Amendment leaders call that nonsense. Criminals, they explain, do not normally obtain their guns through regular legitimate channels, so they don’t bother with background checks.
Research conducted by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics over the past few decades reveals, for example, that criminals get most of their guns from family or friends (39.6%) or off the street/illegal sources (39.2%). This survey of convicted criminals also revealed that gun shows are the source of less than one percent (0.7%) of guns.
Another Bureau of Justice Statistics report said, “About 1.3% of prisoners obtained a gun from a retail source and used it during their offense.” The report also revealed that among prisoners who possessed a gun during their offense, 90 percent “did not obtain it from a retail source.”
