The Biden ATF’s zero-tolerance policy was designed to shut down FFLs

ATF/GOA NEWS

7/21/2016

A new proposed rule by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, designed to make it more difficult to set “zero-tolerance” policies for Federal Firearms Licensees, like the Biden Administration did, has garnered support from the gun-rights group Gun Owners of America.

And in a national alert to members, GOA is even offering some suggestions to the ATF on how to make the rule even better.

The Biden ATF’s zero-tolerance policy was designed to shut down FFLs

As GOA pointed out in the alert, the Biden Administration’s ATF “zero-tolerance” policy was one of the most aggressive attacks on federally licensed firearms dealers in recent history.

“This rule weaponized federal code against firearms dealers, turning misspellings on paperwork into license revocations,” GOA senior vice president Erich Pratt wrote in the alert. “The goal was clear, force gun stores out of business and make it harder for law-abiding Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights. Under Biden, license revocations increased over 500%, leading to the highest number of FFLs closing in two decades.”

The Trump ATF is going after the “willfully” definition that made zero-tolerance possible

With the Trump Administration’s ATF looking to undo some of the things the Biden Administration had done to hurt the Second Amendment, the zero-tolerance rule was rescinded. Now, the ATF has proposed a new rule that targets the foundational reason that Biden was able to implement the zero-tolerance rule in the first place — the legal definition of “willfully.”

While GOA welcomed the proposed rule and the reason behind it, there are some aspects of it that the organization believes need to be improved. Consequently, in the alert, GOA provided members with an easy way to submit a comment to the ATF concerning the rule.