In a national revolt that rivals the Boston Tea Party, all but a handful of gun owners targeted by President Joe Biden have decided to protest the administration’s sweeping rule to regulate one of the most popular and freely owned firearms ever made.
The owners of just 0.6% to 1% of AR-15-style pistols have complied with a May 31 deadline set by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to register their firearms. By failing to do so, the owners of an estimated 20 million to 40 million guns could face 10 years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.
According to ATF spokesman Erik Longnecker, “As of June 1, 2023, ATF received 255,162 applications for tax-free registration.”
If you take the median number of guns in use, said John Lott Jr., president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, “you are still talking about 29 million people who are technically committing felonies at this point.”
That makes it the biggest pro-gun protest ever, bigger than the 4% who complied with a New York law to register AR-15-style rifles and pistols and the 13% in Connecticut who registered their semi-automatic weapons. It’s even bigger than the refusal by 98% in Connecticut to register bullet-holding magazines.
Nevertheless, said Stephen Gutowski, founder of the authoritative gun blog The Reload, “The low compliance rate shouldn’t come as a surprise. Americans have traditionally been very resistant to the idea of registering their firearms, especially those they already own.”
THIS IS A WIN FOR ALL GOA MEMBERS! But we can, and will, do more! #STOPTHEBAN https://t.co/q94nRZibhV
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) June 1, 2023
Justin Anderson, the marketing director for one of the nation’s largest gun shops, Hyatt Guns of Charlotte, North Carolina, told us: “There is also a large group of the gun-owning public that are of the ‘Come and Take Them’ philosophy, which, in the end, puts the Justice Department in a bit of a pickle. I wonder now how they are going to enforce it. Confiscating guns from now formerly law-abiding citizens is not a good look.”
Over the years, the ATF has signaled that the firearms initially designed to make it easier for physically disabled people to shoot AR-15s by including an arm brace built into the stock were legal. But Biden’s team, armed with two mass shootings in which the guns were used, decided to regulate them, requiring a $200 tax and fingerprints.
The ATF waived the tax until May 31 in an attempt to boost registrations. But it appears most owners were willing to roll the dice in the hopes that the courts would overrule the ATF and Biden, as they did on the Trump-era decision to stop a ban on “bump stocks” that can turn semi-automatic rifles into nearly automatic firearms.
So far, that’s been a good bet. At least three courts have imposed a stoppage on enforcing the ATF rule, which is likely headed to the Supreme Court.
“While those injunctions don’t cover all owners, they do signal the ban is likely to falter under constitutional scrutiny. Owners seem to be betting the ban will end up getting tossed,” Gutowski said.
BREAKING: It’s official.
The House will vote on my resolution, H.J.Res. 44, to block the ATF’s unconstitutional pistol brace rule next week.
I will never stop fighting to protect Americans’ Second Amendment freedoms. pic.twitter.com/4Iu5LMLCyb
— Rep. Andrew Clyde (@Rep_Clyde) June 8, 2023
Congress is also looking at getting involved, and a date has been set for a House vote on blocking the ATF’s rule.
Erich Pratt, the senior vice president of Gun Owners of America, which is involved in one of the successful injunctions, said his members are confident that their reading of the Second Amendment will best Biden’s and the ATF’s.
“Americans cherish their Second Amendment rights, so it’s not surprising that very few gun owners registered their pistols with the ATF. Americans know that registration is the first step to confiscation — hence the reason gun owners have a history of refusing to comply with unconstitutional mandates,” he said.
Pratt added: “Given the propensity for ATF leadership to lie or reverse their official positions, American gun owners simply don’t trust the agency with information about the guns they own.”
they don’t need to lock everyone up, now that they have the law on the books, they will just use it as an additional charge for anyone they run across that didn’t comply. A few well aired media events over those will send the message. Meanwhile they will keep letting criminals doing crime go free.
All these alpahabet agencies have turned rogue can’t trust any one of them, this obidens scum dogs we have the corrupt fbi now thugs we have atf more of the same we have doj corrupt needs impeaching dhs this one is a lying leftist joke this guy wouldn’t know the truth if it was in front of him dept of Ed this guy wants to help the lgbtq trans groom and indoctrinate our very young children the fda and cdc are of the same ilk their the ones who pushed the poison vax on the people dept of energy wants to take away our stoves, refrigerators, washing machines heating and air because he’s a pathetic little weezil and liar dept of trans that guy has no business being where he is he’s so bad at his job can you say clueless idiot! Has anyone noticed that biden s regime is comprised of useless idiots like him! If I left out any other alphabet agency I guess it’s becausentheir so bad they don’t deserve recognition! Time to impeach commie traitor joe and take back America let’s go MAGA!