ATF change has to have congress approve it. You know how that will go.
Incorrect. This is a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" and it's an administrative act by the BATFE that does NOT require Congressional approval. BATFE already has wide latitude to make rules to implement the NFA and this does not make any fundamental changes in the eyes of the administration. It's a "housekeeping" rule meant to (in the BATFE's opinion) bring trusts and corporations into better compliance with existing law by requiring anyone who has legal authority over the disposition of an NFA item to undergo the enhanced BATFE background check as well as an amendment to the CLEO signoff that they SAY will remove one obstacle to private applications, which is the objection of many CLEO to the language of the sign off they use now. The BATFE says in it's NPRM that their intent is NOT to eliminate the CLEO signoff but to make it applicable to trusts and corporations because (they say) they have seen two or three instances of trusts or corporations who have felons or other disqualified persons as officers or trustees, so they want to "close the loophole" due to the massive increase of the use of trusts so they can be sure that disqualified persons don't have access to NFA items.
Of course the stupid thing about this argument is that it's already illegal for a convicted felon or other disqualified person to possess so much as a single round of ammunition, and the issuance of an NFA tax stamp does NOTHING to change that. Moreover, a trust or corporation that allows felons to access ANY firearm, NFA or otherwise, is violating the law already and the officers can be prosecuted.
The BATFE is making a determination that it need to accurately identify the "responsible person or persons" who have control of and access to NFA items, which is (given that the NFA exists to begin with) a perfectly reasonable (in their eyes) upgrade to the rules to cover an emerging threat that they perceive. They don't HAVE to do this because, as I said, it's already illegal for a felon to even touch an NFA item or any other firearm, NFA tax stamp or not. But they are jumping on the issue as part of Obama's anti-gun agenda because they can do this administratively and WITHOUT Congressional approval. This is the Progressive agenda. If you don't understand Progressivism, I suggest you immediately get a copy of Ronald Pestritto's "Woodrow Wilson and the roots of modern liberalism" and his other book "American Progressivism" right now and discover what the Progressive plan for America is and has been for the last 100 years.
While the rationale for identifying and background-checking everyone who might have control over an NFA item is hardly objectively unreasonable, the real intent of the BATFE is to continue and advance the impeding of the issuance of NFA tax stamps by tweaking the NFA rules in ways that make it harder (but not impossible for everyone) to get the required approvals. The change to the CLEO signoff while ostensibly "liberalizing" it actually makes it harder because it sweeps trusts and corporations within the ambit of the detailed fingerprint/photograph background check and adds a SIGNIFICANT economic burden to everyone, particularly corporations and trusts, which must go through the paperwork EVERY TIME they change a trustee or corporate officer who is defined as a "responsible person."
They are also COUNTING on the unwillingness of CLEO hostile to the idea of NFA items to even sign off on the new language. The very idea of the CLEO sign off originated in 1934, when there were NO COMPUTERS and no massive federal or state criminal record systems and so it made perfect sense (to them) that the local CLEO would be able to check his files to make sure it wasn't John Dillinger or some other mob boss applying for a machine gun stamp. It was DELIBERATELY worded so as to put some liability on the CLEO if he FALSIFIED the approval form because he was corrupt.
The BATFE ADMITS in its NPRM that the CLEO signoff is an anachronism, but it wants to expand it anyway, ostensibly because there are some states and some criminal records systems that are not inputting "adequate" information into the NCIC or other federal databases. Of course rather than identifying those non-complying systems, they are going to extend the CLEO signoff to everyone using that as a plausible excuse (which is all they need under federal law and court precedent) when their real intent is to increase the unfunded mandate burden on local CLEO in hopes that MORE CLEO will refuse to sign off on the approval because of the time and costs of doing the local background check and the research necessary to tell the BATFE if that particular NFA item is "legal" in that particular jurisdiction.
As an unfunded mandate, no CLEO is REQUIRED to even look at the form. That was settled by the Supreme Court when the BATFE tried to make the CLEO responsible for the NICS checks.
This will increase the expense and paperwork burden on corporations and trusts, make them more likely to be in violation if they neglect to do the paperwork, reduce the likelihood that CLEO will be willing to undertake the burden of filling out and doing the necessary investigations, and therefore will substantially reduce the value and effectiveness of using corporations and trusts as vehicles for NFA ownership.
And that is EXACTLY what the BATFE wants to do. It wants to make it as hard as possible to get an NFA approval and it wants to go back to the "good old days" when the examiners could sit around drinking coffee and telling war stories and occasionally processing the odd NFA form from the very few people who had the time, money and political pull to get the paperwork done.
In other words, the NFA community has made itself a pain in the ass to the BATFE so they are going to use this excuse to inhibit our ability to get NFA items and they are going to do it ADMINISTRATIVELY, just as Obama said he would, without the approval of, and likely in spite of Congress.
The ONLY way to stop or even slow this down is to bury the BATFE and your Congressman in paperwork, but it has to be PROFESSIONAL and POLITE paperwork that makes the following points:
a) The entire fingerprint/photograph background system for NFA items is burdensome, unnecessary and violates Equal Protection because a simple NICS instant check would accomplish the same goal much more quickly and just as effectively...given that it's already a serious federal crime for a felon to touch ANY firearm. Thus, the entire NFA should be amended to require ONLY a NICS instant check for ANY NFA application, and that NICS check should extend to ANYONE who has physical or administrative control over the NFA item, private, corporate or trust. Quick and easy, go to a gun shop, run the NICS check on employees and trustees, get back an approval number from NICS, give a copy of the 4473 to the corporate office or trustee with the name and authorization on the form and the company files it in the NFA files and they are done. In order to get a NICS check you ALREADY have to submit verifiable state or federal picture ID, and all those driver's license, ID and passport databases are linked together at the federal level so a NICS check will cover the situation adequately. With modern computer systems and the in-place NICS system, the fingerprint/photograph expanded background check AND the CLEO signoff are unnecessary, burdensome and deliberately obstructive.
b) If the local CLEO needs to be notified of an NFA item in his jurisdiction then it should be merely a NOTIFICATION. The BATFE would send a form or copy of the federal form to the CLEO with the REQUEST that if the CLEO knows of any reason that person should not be allowed to have the NFA item it is up to the CLEO to CONTACT THE BATFE and register and OBJECTION to the transfer, at which point the process would be suspended pending investigation and appeal.
If the CLEO doesn't find any reason to object, or simply ignores the notification, the process proceeds on track as if an approval was given. In other words, it's "approved unless objected to."
c) It is objectively reasonable that ANYONE who has control over an NFA item must be required to undergo a NICS check and that the corporation or trust obtain and keep the documentation that the individual is not disqualified from possessing firearms and make that information available to the BATFE for inspection if necessary.
We are NOT going to get them to do away with either the CLEO sign off OR the universal background check because they don't put forward an NPRM unless they have already made up their minds what they are going to do.
But we can put pressure on the BATFE by submitting reasonable, rational, polite and carefully-worded arguments and suggestions to both the BATFE during the 90 day comment window AND to our Congressional representatives who can put pressure on the administration to cooperate, or ultimately make a new law.
But we MUST be reasonable, rational and sane about this. If they get hammered with a bunch of irate rants and raves they will use those against us to say "See, these redneck jackasses can't be trusted, they can't even write a reasoned response!" It'll be very bad if that happens.
But there is NO TIME TO WASTE, and everyone who cares needs to get with the program and start writing letters and most of all contacting others and getting them in on the effort. The NFA is a very small community comparatively speaking and we have to find ways to encourage regular gun owners to participate on the "if they can do it to us, they can do it to you" basis. And that's exactly what's in the cards. If they can require fingerprints and photographs for NFA items, and they can require CLEO approval, there's not very much standing in the way of a change in the rules that applies that process to EVERY gun purchase.
So get with the program and spread the word!
