In modern-day America, there is nothing quite so full of mischief as the administrative state with a fresh field to plow.
We are reminded of this by the Biden administration's plan, announced Thursday, to stretch the definition of "gun dealer" well beyond its understanding when Congress approved the shenanigans-inducing legislation in the summer of 2022 in an attempt to further tighten the “gun-show loophole.”
Titled The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — a self-congratulatory tribute to boundless hubris passed in the wake of the May 2022 Uvalde, Texas, elementary school massacre — the White House’s plan to twist the law to its progressive will is a lesson, for congressional Republicans anyway, that no good intention goes unpunished.
Licensed gun dealers in America must run background checks on their customers.⁰
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 11, 2024
But not every gun dealer who ought to be licensed is licensed.
Today, my Administration is clarifying when folks must get their license and run background checks, and ensuring that gun show and… pic.twitter.com/Wga2qazFFM
That Joe Biden would attempt to gain advantage from practicing executive order wordplay is, by now, absolutely unsurprising. That veteran GOP hands such as senators John Cornyn (Texas) and Thom Tills (North Carolina) would react with anything besides fool-me-twice chagrin is pathetic.
Instead, the pair who served as the lead Republicans on the BSCA own-goal have embarked on a campaign of symbolic gestures, promising a joint resolution of disapproval to upend “this unconstitutional rule.”
Their action strikes a balance between noble and futile: Two thirds of each chamber — Senate and House of Representatives — must approve the resolution for it to take effect. The ever-so-slightly GOP-led House can’t get two thirds of the joint to agree on what to have for lunch.
At issue — yes, we finally come to it — is the definition of “gun dealer.” Cornyn, Tillis, and other Republicans who came on board can almost be forgiven for imagining the term has, or at least had, a fixed meaning. After all, the context was the events in Uvalde, where the shooter visited a traditionally licensed brick-and-mortar shop to purchase a pair of semiautomatic rifles within days of going on his blackhearted rampage.
Thus did they stamp the B on the BSCA, thereby lending its brother’s Lincoln Continental to the schemers in the Animal White House. Cue rush chairman Eric “Otter” Stratton sage words regarding trust. (Language alert.)
A year ago, Biden set Attorney General Merrick Garland a task of clarifying (i.e. manipulating) what it means to be “engaged in business.” The delivered package would embarrass even the ministers of newspeak.
Having none of that, Friday, the governor of Florida — who once was an illuminating revelation in the GOP presidential campaign, but it was super cold that on caucus night in Iowa — told it like it is. Or ought to be, anyhow.
Flanked by a dozen or more law enforcement officers looking ready for SWAT duty, Ron DeSantis took the opportunity of a reporter’s question — What did he make of the president tightening the gun-show loophole? — to rail at Biden’s unilateral remaking of legislative language through “executive fiat.”
NEW: Governor DeSantis responds to a reporter's question about the Biden Administration attempting to "close the gun show loophole." 👀👇
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) April 12, 2024
DESANTIS: There's no gun show loophole. This is propaganda. 🎯
"Clearly they don't have legislation ... so it's another example of Biden… pic.twitter.com/PRpg3LdPob
“This is just typical propaganda,” DeSantis said. “If I have a gun store and you come in, you’re required to run a background check. If I bring my inventory to a run show, I still have do do the same thing. …
“There’s no difference between a gun show and being in your store. And so that is something that, really, I think is a myth. …
“They don’t have legislation [and] they need legislation if they’re going to do these [background check requirements].”
All that may be true, but until the Chevron doctrine is overturned, putting an end (knock wood) to administrative inferences, fabrications, preferences and convenience manipulating legislative language — in June, most likely, when the Supreme Court closes shop for the summer — the Biden White House undoubtably will plow on.
An analysis published last week from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found sales by unlicensed dealers were the most frequently used gun trafficking channel. From 2017 to 2021, the ATF traced more than 68,000 of these illegally tracked firearms to unlicensed dealers.
“Today’s Final Rule is about ensuring compliance with an important area of the existing law where we all know, the data show, and we can clearly see that a whole group of folks are openly flouting that law. That leads to not just unfair but, in this case, dangerous consequences,” said ATF director Steven Dettelbach.
Listen, a reasonable case can be made for mandating background checks on firearms sales involving for-profit hobbyist. Lots of bad actors do slip through, apparently. Should that activity be tidied up? Maybe. Would it be effective? Who knows? However, so far nobody has brought that argument to a winning vote on the floor of either chamber of Congress. And, as DeSantis notes, that’s how we do things in the United States. It’s bedrock constitutional philosophy.
Meanwhile, the Second Amendment still says what it says: The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Ron DeSantis, bless him, seems to understand what that’s about.
Meanwhile, Republicans are nominating for president the guy who shrugged in February 2018, “Take the guns first, go through due process second.”
If he somehow makes it back into the Oval Office, Donald J. Trump may override scores of Joe Biden’s executive orders — and good on him for that. But this latest on firearms and dealers sounds like one he can be counted on to keep.
