Joe Biden reportedly wants to crack down on “ghost guns,” a move that would fulfill a campaign promise to end citizens’ access to firearms that aren’t regulated by the government.
The term “ghost guns” refers to homemade firearms and/or improvised arms that lack serial numbers, and Democrats use the term to describe guns that can be built from kits or 80-percent frames/lowers.
According to Politico, an executive order Biden is weighing would put in place a background-check requirement for possession of such guns.
During the 2020 campaign, Biden’s campaign website read: “One way people who cannot legally obtain a gun may gain access to a weapon is by assembling one on their own, either by buying a kit of disassembled gun parts or 3D printing a working firearm. Biden will stop the proliferation of these so-called ‘ghost guns’ by passing legislation requiring that purchasers of gun kits or 3D printing code pass a federal background check.”
Democrats argue that such a background check will keep Americans safe from gun violence, but it would give the government more power to monitor and curtail citizens’ exercise of their Second Amendment-guaranteed rights.
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is among those pushing the Biden administration to take his executive actions further, saying, “My view is the bigger and bolder the better on gun violence prevention because we have a unique window of opportunity.”
Blumenthal wants the White House to act on the so-called Charleston loophole, which allows licensed gun dealers to complete firearms sales before a background check is complete.
Pro-gun groups, however, argue that it is not a “loophole” at all, but an important condition to ensuring the federal government respects Americans’ rights.
The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) writes:
Under current law, commercial firearms transactions cannot proceed until a background check determines that the transfer to the individual would not violate applicable federal and state laws. In the case of a delay, if the background check is not completed within 3 business days, the Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) has the OPTION to proceed with the transfer. The FFL is NOT required to complete the transfer.
The 3 day proceed to sale provision is a safety valve that ensures gun purchasers in the U.S. are not arbitrarily denied their Second Amendment Rights. Without the 3 day provision, the FBI has no incentive to complete checks in a timely manner.
Biden aides, however, have reportedly been reluctant to act on Blumenthal’s recommendations regarding the “Charleston loophole” and other gun issues. Whereas Biden is willing to clamp down on ghost guns, Politico reports that on other gun matters, the administration, for now, prefers to wait for legislation to reach the Oval Office desk.
Biden wants to ban semi-automatic firearms, provide funding to states to enact red flag laws, and implement a mass gun confiscation program to collect the weapons he hopes to ban.
His gun-control proposal calls for putting “America on the path to ensuring that 100% of firearms sold in America are smart guns,” which would include fingerprint technology that only allows authorized users to fire a gun.
For the moment, Biden’s hands are tied on gun control. He currently lacks a Senate-confirmed attorney general and director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), both of whom would play a key role in executive action on guns.
But he may get his wishlist through Congress. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) will soon introduce universal background check legislation similar to the platform Biden campaigned on. Representative Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) is expected to put forward similar universal background-check legislation in the House.
Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) already submitted two gun-control bills in January. Together, H.R. 125 and H.R. 127 would create a seven-day waiting period for semiautomatic firearm purchases, create a national gun registry, require gun owners to be licensed, and require Americans to pay the federal government $800 for “liability insurance” just to own a gun, among other restrictions.
Even Republican Senator Marco Rubio (Fla.) is helping the gun-control cause with a bill he recently introduced that would prevent those who were the subject of a federal terrorism investigation (note: not actually convicted of or proven to have conspired in terrorist acts, but merely investigated) to be blocked from purchasing a firearm.
Reintroduced in the wake of the January 6 Capitol protest, Rubio’s legislation would likely be abused by a Democrat administration eager to label all conservatives “right-wing terrorists.” It would, moreover, violate the principle of “innocent until proven guilty.”
