The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) on July 3 indicated it would further roll back laws and rules on guns, proposing to reduce fingerprinting requirements on applications for certain types of firearms.
Since April, the ATF has moved to trim a number of federal firearms rules, including ending the previous administration’s pistol brace rule, rules around background checks at gun shows and online marketplaces, and others.
On July 3, the federal agency said it is proposing “amending regulatory requirements to submit fingerprints and photographs with firearms applications” to register items or firearms under the National Firearms Act. Those firearms and components include suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns, among others that require ATF approval.
Under the plan, individual applicants would submit a single fingerprint card instead of two and could verify identity with a photo ID rather than a passport-style photo. The rule is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on July 6, opening a comment period through Oct. 5.
It comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees the ATF, announced in April that it would be rolling back a number of rules around firearms in a bid to bolster Second Amendment rights. Meanwhile, the DOJ has filed lawsuits challenging state laws that the department says place unconstitutional burdens on gun ownership, including recent legislation in California and Virginia.
“The Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” said acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche in a statement in late April, weeks after he was named as the interim chief law enforcement officer. “This Department of Justice is ending the weaponization of federal authority against law-abiding gun owners. We will continue to vigorously defend their rights as the Constitution demands.”
As he announced 34 new proposed ATF rules, Blanche described the current regime of ATF rules as being overly complex and difficult to understand.
Blanche said at the time that many ATF rules were created “without any real understanding of how firearms businesses operate, how lawful gun owners actually handle their firearms, or what truly improves public safety.”
“We will, as we always have done, continue to follow the evidence, continue to aggressively prosecute violent crime,” Blanche said in a news conference. “If anything, what we’re doing today will actually help law enforcement because clearer rules mean better compliance and better compliance means better enforcement.”
Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control organization, criticized Blanche’s announcement to roll back ATF firearms rules, said it would lead to a rise in violent crime, and predicted the move would lead to midterm losses for the GOP.
The Trump administration’s “enablers in Congress will have nowhere to hide when gun safety voters head to the polls this November—and accountability is coming,” the group’s president, John Feinblatt, said in a statement.
