Category: Gun Control

BIS New Rule Summary and Immediate Change to Export Regulations For Shotguns and Optics

Unfortunately, many of the changes BIS implemented through the so-called “90-day” pause are becoming permanent in the interim final rule. This will have a negative impact on many firearm industry businesses.

  • Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS) interim final rule was released Friday, April 26, for public inspection. On Tuesday, April 30, it was published to the Federal Register. The rule takes effect May 30, 2024. Public comment period is open until July 1, 2024.
      • NSSF® strongly encourages all exporting companies in the industry to submit public comments and to set forth the economic impact on your business, i.e., lost sales, loss of jobs. We encourage you to engage with your supply chain who will be adversely impacted by the rule and encourage them to submit comments to BIS.
      • Please share your comment letter with NSSF and with your Member of Congress and U.S. Senators. Please share your comment letter with Joe Bliss.

    Read more

Firearms, Gun Control

Hagerty, Colleagues Announce Legislation to Block BIS Admin Rule

Hagerty-led Resolution of Disapproval would overturn the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security’s rule that would permanently extend the current “pause” on firearm export licenses

WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, today announced his plan to file a Congressional Review Act (CRA) Resolution of Disapproval to block the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) interim final rule that prohibits Americans from exercising their Second Amendment Rights. The Resolution of Disapproval is co-sponsored by Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ted Budd (R-NC), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Steve Daines (R-MT), Deb Fisher (R-NE), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and Jim Risch (R-ID).

The interim final rule severely restricts the ability of American firearm, ammunition, and related-component manufacturers to obtain a license to export their products for sale. This is an attempt to effectively permanently extend the current “pause” on such export licenses and will rescind approximately 2,000 active export licenses for certain firearms. In addition to being an unlawful, unjustified exercise of regulatory authority, this will have a substantial, negative impact on these American manufacturers, their suppliers, and the jobs they support.

“This rule is another Operation Choke Point—a politically motivated effort that significantly harms Tennessee manufacturers—and will consequently destroy U.S. jobs and small businesses that support the firearm and ammunition industry,” said Senator Hagerty. “The Biden Administration has made clear that its goal is to damage the firearm industry that supplies the products that allow Americans to exercise their constitutional freedom. Crushing American exports is just a means to skirt the legislative process and do damage to yet another Biden-disfavored industry. I’m pleased to lead my colleagues in an effort to overturn this unlawful and unwarranted rule and protect American enterprise.” Read more

Gun Control

NSSF Deeply Critical of Commerce Department Plan to Permanently Throttle Firearm Exports

WASHINGTON, D.C. — NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, is deeply critical of the Interim Final Rule published today by Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) that cements the supposed 90-day firearm export “pause” into permanent policy and creates additional regulatory burdens. The Biden administration has demonstrated again their deepening contempt toward the firearm industry. This rule entrenches their “whole of government” attack and is intended to hobble the firearm industry’s ability to compete in the international market under the false pretense of advancing U.S. national security.

“The enmity of the Biden administration against the firearm industry and Second Amendment rights is without parallel. This is deeply troubling the lengths to which this administration will go to turn the levers of government against a Constitutionally-protected industry in order to cozy up to special-interest gun control donors,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President & General Counsel. “The supposed ‘temporary pause’ to review firearm export policies was a farce. It was an effort to buy the administration time to gin up policies that would strike at the heart of the ability of this industry to stay in business. This has been the end goal since President Biden said from the Democratic debate stage that ‘firearm manufacturers are the enemy.’ This is a wholesale attack on the industry that provides the means for Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights.” Read more

Firearms, Gun Control

SAF Travel Advisory: Avoid Turks and Caicos Islands

To all U.S. gun owners Do Not Travel to the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British Overseas Territory located southeast of the Bahamas, and if you have already made plans, reconsider your destination.

SUMMARY: Since November 2022, at least eight American tourists have faced “firearms prosecutions” for inadvertently having ammunition in their luggage. In the past, tourists had been able to pay a fine, but as of a judge’s ruling in February of this year, violators are subject to severe prison time.

Firearms and ammunition are strictly forbidden in Turks and Caicos. Read more

Firearms, Gun Control

SAF Files Reply Brief to Obtain SCOTUS Cert in Maryland Gun Ban Case

The Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a long-running challenge of Maryland’s ban on so-called “assault weapons” have filed a reply brief in their effort to obtain certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court.

As noted in the brief, “The case was fully briefed and argued before a three-judge panel for the Fourth Circuit. Inexplicably, over a year after argument was held and with no panel opinion issued, the Fourth Circuit sua sponte elected to hear the case en banc, further delaying the exercise of a fundamental right and seemingly to prevent publication of an opinion that favors the plaintiffs. Seeking certiorari before judgment is an extraordinary remedy reserved for cases of imperative public importance.”

SAF petitioned for certiorari in February. The case is known as Bianchi v. Frosh. The high court had previously granted certiorari in June 2022, and immediately vacated a lower court ruling and remanded the case back for further review in the aftermath of the court’s landmark New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. Bruen decision.

SAF is joined in the case by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Firearms Policy Coalition, Field Traders, LLC and three private citizens, David Snope, Micah Schaefer and Dominic Bianchi, for whom the case is titled. They are represented by attorneys Nicole J. Moss, David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and John D. Ohlendorf with Cooper & Kirk PLLC in Washington, D.C., and Raymond M. DiGuiseppe of North Carolina.

“This case has been lingering too long in the Fourth Circuit and it needs to be resolved,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “There is no credible reason for inaction by the appellate court, thus allowing Maryland’s ban on commonly-owned modern semiautomatic rifles to continue. Clearly, the Supreme Court must resolve this issue.” Read more

Gun Control

Fed. Court in PA Hands Victory to SAF, Young Adults in Carry Case

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania has handed a significant victory to the Second Amendment Foundation and young adults in the 18-20-year age group, allowing them to apply for concealed carry licenses in the state, while enjoining the state from arresting any law-abiding citizens in that age group for openly carrying firearms during a state of emergency.

The case is known as Lara v. Evanchick. SAF is joined by the Firearms Policy Coalition and three private citizens, including Madison M. Lara, for whom the case is named. They are represented by attorneys Joshua Prince of the Civil Rights Defense Group, David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and John D. Ohlendorf at Cooper & Kirk, Washington, D.C.

U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman, a Donald Trump appointee, issued the ruling in which he writes the Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police “is hereby enjoined from arresting law-abiding persons 18 to 20 years old who openly carry firearms during a state of emergency declared by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” Judge Stickman further enjoined the commissioner and his subordinates from preventing “any individual between the ages of 18 and 20 years old, who are not disqualified from exercising their Second Amendment rights from carrying loaded, operable firearms, including handguns, on their person, in public and in their vehicles, for all lawful purposes including self-defense.”

“Judge Stickman’s injunction has conferred the same Second Amendment rights upon 18-20-year-olds that those over 21 have had,” said Adam Kraut, SAF’s Executive Director. “Now 18-20-year-olds in Pennsylvania may apply for License to Carry Firearms and the state’s draconian transportation laws have been enjoined from enforcement. This is a victory for Second Amendment rights in PA.” Read more

Gun Control

Supreme Court Grants Cert in SAF VanDerStok Frames, Receivers Case

BELLEVUE, WA – The U.S. Supreme Court has granted the petition for a writ of certiorari in the case of Garland v. VanDerStok, which challenges the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Final Rule” which considers frames and receivers to be firearms.

The case dates back to April 2022 when the ATF published its “Final Rule” changing the regulatory definition of the term “firearm,” to encompass objects which are not firearms, along with firearms parts kits, in direct contradiction of Congress’ definition of those terms found in the Gun Control Act of 1968. In December 2022, the Second Amendment Foundation and Defense Distributed filed an intervenor’s complaint in an existing lawsuit being litigated in the Northern District of Texas.

“We are delighted that the Court has agreed to hear our challenge to ATF’s frames and receivers ‘Final Rule’,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “ATF has continuously exceeded its constitutional authority and violated the separation of powers by creating law – a job reserved exclusively for Congress. It is time for the Supreme Court to remind ATF that it may not do so and affirm the judgment of the Fifth Circuit.”

“This case typifies the Biden administration’s war on the Second Amendment,” added SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Clearly under Joe Biden, the ATF has unilaterally set itself up as the sole authority on firearms regulation, bypassing Congress and arbitrarily changing long-standing regulations to suit the administration’s anti-gun agenda.” Read more

Gun Control

“Engaged in the Business as a Dealer in Firearms” – Final Rule Notification

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) sent the following notice this afternoon regarding firearm storage at FFLs. Please review the notice in its entirety.

From ATF:

On April 10, 2024, the Attorney General signed ATF’s final rule, Definition of “Engaged in the Business” as a Dealer in Firearms, amending ATF’s regulations in title 27, Code of Federal Regulations (“CFR”), part 478. The final rule implements the provisions of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (“BSCA,” effective June 25, 2022), which broadened the definition of when a person is considered “engaged in the business” as a dealer in firearms (other than a gunsmith or pawnbroker). The Final Rule clarifies that definition.

This final rule incorporates BSCA’s definitions of “predominantly earn a profit” and “terrorism,” and amends the regulatory definitions of “engaged in the business as a dealer other than a gunsmith or pawnbroker” and “principal objective of livelihood and profit” to ensure each conforms with the BSCA’s statutory changes and can be relied upon by the public.

The final rule clarifies when a person is “engaged in the business” as a dealer in firearms at wholesale or retail by: Read more

Gun Control

Firearm Industry Members Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Review Mexico’s $10 Billion Lawsuit

Firearm industry members targeted by Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case that seeks to blame them for the harm caused by lawless narco-terrorist drug cartels in Mexico. Mexico’s lawsuit also seeks to dictate how firearms are made and sold throughout the United States through a federal court injunction, in effect usurping the role of Congress and 50 state legislatures. The industry defendants in Estados Unidos Mexicanos v. Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc., et al., have asked the Supreme Court to consider two questions – whether the lawful production and sale of firearms in the United States is the “proximate cause” of alleged injuries to the Mexican government stemming from cartel-driven violence and if that also amounts to “aiding and abetting” illegal firearms trafficking because Mexico alleges these manufacturers know their products are unlawfully trafficked.

The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) precludes frivolous lawsuits against the firearm industry for damages caused by the criminal and unlawful acts of remote third parties. A U.S. District court dismissed the case, finding the claims were barred by the PLCAA. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, however, revived the case on Mexico’s appeal, holding Mexico’s claims alleging that the defendants know their regular business practices contribute to illegal firearm trafficking fit within a narrow exception to the PLCAA. Read more

Firearms, Gun Control
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