April 11, 2024 02:01 PM UTC

Biden Administration Takes Huge Step Toward Closing Gun Show Loophole

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• by: Colorado Pols

While Colorado Republicans are busy leaving their firearms unattended in public places, President Joe Biden is fulfilling a promise to close the gun-show loophole.

As The New York Times reports:

The Biden administration has approved the broadest expansion of federal background checks in decades in an attempt to regulate a fast-growing shadow market of weapons sold online, at gun shows and through private sellers that has contributed to gun violence.

Under a rule released on Thursday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will require anyone “engaged in the business” of selling guns at a profit to register as a federally licensed firearms dealer. That means those sellers must run background criminal and mental health checks on potential buyers.

The new regulation, which is likely to face legal challenges, could add as many as 23,000 federal dealers to the 80,000 already regulated by A.T.F., an underfunded division of the Justice Department that already struggles to monitor sellers….

…President Biden, repeatedly blocked from enacting universal background checks by Republicans in Congress, is leveraging a provision of the sweeping bipartisan gun control law passed in 2022 to achieve an elusive policy goal that enjoys widespread public support: closing the so-called gun show loophole.

Republicans, as we have seen repeatedly, have no interest in making real changes to address gun violence in this country. So Biden is finding a way to do it without them.

Here’s more from The Associated Press:

Thousands more firearms dealers across the United States will have to run background checks on buyers at gun shows or other places outside brick-and-mortar stores, according to a Biden administration rule that will soon go into effect.

The rule aims to close a loophole that has allowed tens of thousands of guns to be sold every year by unlicensed dealers who do not perform background checks to ensure the potential buyer is not legally prohibited from having a firearm. Gun rights groups are expected to fight it in court.

It’s the administration’s latest effort to combat gun violence. But in a contentious election year, it’s also an effort to show voters — especially younger ones for whom gun violence deeply resonates — that the White House is trying to stop the deaths.

“This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “And my administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives. Congress needs to finish the job and pass universal background checks legislation now.”

House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse (D-Boulderish) applauded Biden’s move, which comes just days before the 25th Anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton:

“From Columbine to Boulder, and Aurora to Colorado Springs, families across Colorado are far too familiar with the pain and anguish caused by gun violence and devastating mass shootings. Today’s rule closes dangerous gaps in state and Federal gun laws, expanding background checks and doing more to prevent similar tragedies from happening again. We will not sit idly by as gun violence continues to devastate our communities,” said Assistant Leader Joe Neguse.

Here in Colorado on Friday, the legislature will return to discussing a proposed “assault weapons ban.”

Democrats are making it crystal clear in 2024 that they are the only party interested in actually doing anything about our nation’s scourge of gun violence and mass shootings. If gun violence prevention is an issue that matters to you, then you won’t have a difficult decision to make in November.