Jim Jordan aims to shoot down new gun dealing rule from Ohio’s Steve Dettelbach

WASHINGTON, D. C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is pushing firearms regulators led by Steve Dettelbach to provide information about what led to a proposal that could expand the pool of gun sellers who must be licensed by the federal government.

Saying the proposed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) effort “threatens to violate the Second Amendment rights of millions of Americans,” Jordan sent a letter to Dettelbach on Thursday asking Dettelbach, the bureau’s director, to provide his committee with records. Those include communications between the Executive Office of the President and ATF regarding the proposed policy, an explanation of how ATF plans on enforcing the policy when it’s finalized, and all documents and communications between ATF and any organizations it consulted on the change. The committee wants the information by 5 p.m. on March 14.

At issue is a rule proposed on Sept. 8 that would broaden the definition of when a person is considered “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms and would need a federal license to sell guns. Under federal law, an individual who willfully engages in the business of dealing in firearms without a license is subject to a term of imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to $250,000, or both.

The Justice Department said the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), enacted in 2022, expanded the definition of engaging in the business of firearms dealing “to cover all persons who devote time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business to predominately earn a profit through the repetitive purchase and sale of firearms.”

The proposed rule that upset the Champaign County Republican would make make ATF’s regulations conform with that definition and further clarify the conduct that requires licensure, the Justice Department said.

A statement Dettelbach issued about the new rule said increasing numbers of individuals who sell firearms for profit have chosen not to register as federal firearms licensees, as required by law, and are instead peddling them “through the off-book, illicit” sales.

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