Rep. Kelly, with Sen. Menendez & Rep. McBath, Leads Bicameral Letter of 90 Congressional Colleagues Urging ATF to Fully Implement Federal Rules to Help Close the Gun Seller Background Check Loophole

Rep. Robin Kelly
Rep. Robin Kelly

 

Rep. Kelly, with Sen. Menendez & Rep. McBath, Leads Bicameral Letter of 90 Congressional Colleagues Urging ATF to Fully Implement Federal Rules to Help Close the Gun Seller Background Check Loophole

Letter comes as one year anniversary of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act being signed into law and as the nation reels from another weekend of horrific gun violence.

WASHINGTON, D.C – Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-Ill.-02), with U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Congresswomen Lucy McBath (D-Ga.-07), led a bicameral letter of over nearly 90 Congressional colleagues urging the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to implement federal rules to designate who is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms to help close the gun seller background check loophole.

The letter comes on the heels of a deadly mass shooting this past Saturday in Allen, Texas, and as the somber one-year anniversary approaches for the Buffalo supermarket shooting that killed 10 people on May 14, 2022 and the Uvalde school shooting that killed 19 Texas fourth graders and two teachers on May 24, 2022. The BSCA—the first significant federal gun safety legislation in 30 years—was signed into law by President Biden on June 25, 2022.

“Today, we write to highlight one directive in particular: the President’s clarion call to clarify the definition of who is “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms—a step that moves us closer to closing the background check loophole. The background check loophole in federal law permits unlicensed gun sellers—those who are not “engaged in the business” of dealing in the firearms—to sell guns without conducting a background check on the purchaser. These sellers have, for decades, taken advantage of commercial marketplaces, like gun shows, to turn a profit by funneling firearms into the hands of convicted felons, domestic abusers, gun traffickers, and other prohibited persons,” the lawmakers wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and ATF Director Steve Dettelbach.

In their letter, the lawmakers cite President Biden’s executive order, signed March 14, 2023, which was the most recent call to action urging the ATF to implement rule-making as outlined by the BSCA.

Specially, the lawmakers are asking ATF to clarify rules around who is classified as a gun seller so that whether an individual is purchasing a firearm from a brick-and-mortar store, or at a gun show or online, that they would be subject to a background check.

According to Everytown for Gun Safety, of the over nine million posts on Armslist; 68-percent of the posts listed firearms for sales. Of those posts, 78-percent were by unlicensed sellers.

Joining Sen. Menendez in signing the letter were Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Angus S. King, Jr. (I-Maine), Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Bob Casey, Jr. (D-Pa.).

Endorsing groups include Everytown for Gun Safety, Giffords, and The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

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