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From: "max headroom" <maximusheadroom@gmx.com>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Biden's Contempt for the Rule of Law Laid Bare in Move to Close Imaginary 'Gun Show Loophole'
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2024 08:58:23 -0700
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Biden's Contempt for the Rule of Law Laid Bare in Move to Close Imaginary 'Gun 
Show Loophole'

Bob Barr

President Biden's family, individuals within his Administration, and his 
political supporters will defend him aggressively when former President Trump 
and others in the GOP deride him for his many gaffes and policy blunders. 
Mainstream media pundits will continue to cover for him when presented with 
inescapable evidence of his advanced age.

There is, however, one trait exhibited repeatedly by the current President that 
is beyond dispute or defense even by his most ardent supporters - Biden's utter 
disdain for the rule of law. This disturbing characteristic was on full display 
recently with the signing of a regulatory "rule" placing further limits on the 
Second Amendment without bothering to secure the legislative approval to do so 
as required by the Constitution.
Constitutional Law 101 reminds us that of the three branches of our government, 
only the Legislative is empowered to pass, amend, or change laws. In fact, the 
very first operative sentence of the Constitution makes this abundantly clear, 
vesting All legislative Powers in the Congress; not in the presidency and not in 
the Courts. Once the Congress has spoken by passing legislation, and once signed 
by the president, it becomes the law of the land and can be changed only by 
subsequent act of Congress.

It is black-letter law that a president cannot, consistent with the Constitution 
and the principle that America operates as "a government  of laws, and not of 
men," simply change terms defined and codified in statutes to suit his policy 
preferences.

This is, however, exactly what the Biden Administration has done with 
long-standing firearms laws which provide that if individuals or businesses 
regularly and as a matter of course sell firearms, then such transfers must 
first be cleared through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System 
("NICS"). Importantly, neither the "Gun Control Act of 1968" (which set up the 
system of Federal Firearms Licensees) nor the "Brady Handgun Violence Prevention 
Act of 1993" (which established the NICS system) required that every  transfer 
of a firearm be first cleared through the NICS system.

In making such a distinction between what might be considered "occasional" gun 
sales and those by a business or individual engaged in the regular commerce of 
trading in firearms, the Congress properly limited the reach of mandated 
firearms background checks to the scope of federal power under the Constitution; 
namely, "commerce."

Gun control advocates cleverly over the decades have hijacked the term 
 "loophole" to characterize sales at gun shows in such a way as to imply that 
such sales were intended by Congress to have been covered by the background 
check mandate. In fact, however, federal law is clear on this point - there is 
no gun show "loophole" (defined by Merriam-Webster as "an ambiguity or omission 
in the text through which the intent of a statute, contract, or obligation may 
be evaded").

In recent years, there have been myriad legislative proposals to do what the 
Congress explicitly has declined to do - expand the definition of "engaged in 
the business" of selling firearms to close an imaginary "gun show loophole." All 
such efforts have failed to gain a majority vote in the Congress - something 
that really chafes anti-Second Amendment advocates like Joe Biden, who believe 
the default for every transfer of a firearm should be a mandatory NICS 
background check.

Not only has there never been a "gun show loophole," but even if such a thing 
existed, according to the federal government's own data only a very small number 
of illegally trafficked firearms originate at gun shows (a mere three percent 
according to the just-published federal "National Firearms Commerce and 
Trafficking Assessment").

Despite these facts, the Biden Administration on April 8th finalized its 
466-page "rule" that changes the statutory definition of "engaged in the 
business" of  selling firearms so that, as accurately noted in an analysis of 
the new rule by the NRA, tens of thousands of lawful private gun sales will now 
be unlawful. The April 11th White House "Factsheet" proudly heralding the new 
gun control rule includes the requisite fearmongering about untold victims of 
guns acquired at gun shows without NICS background checks but who now will be 
saved by closing the "gun show loophole."

The only true victim in this latest gun control maneuver, however, is the rule 
of law.

https://townhall.com/columnists/bobbarr/2024/04/17/bidens-contempt-for-the-rule-of-law-laid-bare-in-move-to-close-imaginary-gun-show-loophole-n2637868