Obama weighs expanding background checks through executive authority

[damnedifIknow]

In response to the latest mass shooting during his presidency, President Obama is seriously considering circumventing Congress with his executive authority and imposing new background-check requirements for buyers who purchase weapons from high-volume gun dealers.

Under the proposed rule change, dealers who exceed a certain number of sales each year would be required to obtain a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and perform background checks on potential buyers.

As the president heads to Roseburg, Ore., on Friday to comfort the survivors and families of those killed in last week’s mass shooting at Umpqua Community College, the political calculus around his most vexing domestic policy issue is shifting once again.

*The proposed executive action aims to impose background checks on individuals who buy from dealers who sell a significant number of guns each year. The current federal statute dictates that those who are “engaged in the business” of dealing firearms need to obtain a federal license — and, therefore, conduct background checks — but exempts anyone “who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms.”

White House officials drafted the proposal in late 2013 to apply to those dealers who sell at least 50 guns annually, after Congress had rejected legislation that would have expanded background checks more broadly to private sellers. "

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-weighs-expanding-background-checks-through-executive-authority/2015/10/08/6bd45e56-6b63-11e5-9bfe-e59f5e244f92_story.html

[PoliticAverse]

1. Also being discussed on DU in LBN here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141228703

[Lizzie Poppet]

2. This is a good proposal.

The number of people who sell "at least 50 guns annually" who are not in that business has to be very small - hardcore collectors, basically. I think if you're in even a part-time business selling guns, you should have to have an FFL (and therefore be required to conduct background checks and retain sales records).

[dumbcat]

3. Right. They are essentially declaring that individuals that sell

more than 50 firearms a year are actually "in the business" and require an FFL and must do the background checks. I am OK with that.

Currently the Houston office of the BATFE and the District Court there hold that "engaged in the business" is selling more than 5 firearms a year. The definition of "engaged in the business" varies within BATFE jurisdiction. At least this would standardize the definition among the various offices.

[sufrommich]

4. Please,President Obama,do it.nt

[Kang Colby]

5. Whatever. This is a pro gun measure.

This is simply a political ploy. The wording in GCA '68 is ambiguous now, so anyone already selling 50 guns per year without a federal license, especially renting space at a gun show or flea market is risking being labeled as in the business of selling guns. 50 is many times higher than what most collectors feel comfortable doing now, so in a way this is a pro-gun measure.

https://www.atf.gov/file/56651/download