Biden’s proposed “zero tolerance” on federal firearms dealers is an attack on the 2nd Amendment

On June 23, 2021, news reports are indicating that Joe Biden will announce new federal steps to combat what he refers to as “gun violence”. The terms of the proposal indicate that this is in part an aggressive attack by Democrats and Biden’s handlers to target gun dealers by implementing a “zero tolerance” enforcement plan.

CBS News reports that “[u]nder the administration’s plan, the Justice Department is announcing a new “zero tolerance” policy for gun dealers who violate federal law. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will aim to revoke licenses for dealers if they transfer a firearm to a prohibited person, fail to run a background check, falsify records, refuse to permit ATF to conduct an inspection or falsify records.”

Under federal law, ATF already has the authority to terminate any federal firearms license if the ATF believes that the dealer has “willfully” violated federal gun laws. The willfulness element was added by Congress in the 1986 Firearms Owners Protection Act because ATF already had a history of revoking federal firearms licenses for any violation of the 1968 Gun Control Act – no matter how minor. A “zero tolerance” policy could easily negate the inadequate protections of the 1986 FOPA and would potentially encourage ATF and federal prosecutors to aggressively seek out and revoke federal firearms licenses for inadvertent mistakes, minor bookkeeping errors and other mistakes that should be corrected with industry compliance support rather than becoming weaponized against the 2nd Amendment.

As with his prior effort’s Biden’s proposals are not truly directed toward dealing with violence in America. It is directly predominately at choking off the access that citizens have to acquire the very items that they have the right to own and which right government is prohibited from infringing by the 2nd Amendment.

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