FARGO, ND -(Ammoland.com)- Gun Owners of America (GOA), Bridge City Ordinance, and North Dakota resident Eliezer Jimenez have sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over its new rule on unfinished frames and receivers.
After Joe Biden became president, he tasked the ATF to come up with new regulations surrounding privately manufactured firearms (PMF) and pistol stabilizing devices. Biden’s ATF unveiled new rules for a public comment period. Gun owners flooded the comments, but the Bureau moved forward and unveiled the new rules in the White House Rose Garden.
The rule is due to go into effect in late August. According to the new regulation, Americans can still build their own firearms, but it does make it almost impossible to get all the parts to build a gun. Frames and jigs cannot be sold together. If a gun owner buys the items separately, the ATF will consider that structuring the purchases to get around the new regulation.
The other big issue is that if a company sells a frame, and a second company sells a jig, and a customer buys the items from both companies, those companies can be charged with conspiracy. The ATF will charge both companies with conspiracy even if the companies are not connected in any way besides a customer using both sites to purchase items. The lawsuit challenges both of these points in the ATF’s final rule on PMF.
The suit is over 150 pages long and attacks the new regulations on multiple fronts.
One of the plaintiffs is Bridge City Ordinance. Bridge City Ordinance is a gun dealer with a federal firearms license (FFL). One service Bridge City Ordinance offers is Cerakoting. Cerakoting is a process used in painting a firearm. The process takes several days to complete.
Currently, if a customer brings Bridge City Ordinance a PMF to Cerakote, the company can Cerakote the firearms, and there is no need to serialize that gun. Under the final rule, Bridge City Ordinance will need to serialize the customer’s frame before the firearm can be transferred back to the customer. A lot of Cerakote businesses do not have the equipment to be able to engrave a serial number on a firearm frame. Laser engravers and CNC machines cost thousands of dollars which is unrealistic for a smaller shop.
GOA fears these new rules mean that gunsmiths will not take in homemade guns to avoid the headache of serialization.
Even if a firearm is built from an 80% kit and is brought to a gunsmith for the installation of new sights, the gunsmith will have to serialize the frame if they need to keep the firearm overnight. AmmoLand News talked to several gun shops that do not have engravers and plan on not working on PMFs after the new rule takes effect.
Another issue GOA has with the final rule is that it requires gun store owners to keep records of transfers forever. Right now, an FFL is permitted to destroy all ATF Form 4473 older than 20 years old. The new rule puts an ever-increasing burden on FFLs. GOA claims these new rules run afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The gun-rights group believes that the ATF is abusing its power by adding these new requirements through the rule-making process instead of going through Congress.
The group is asking for the judge to issue a nationwide injunction blocking the new rule from going into effect and seeks to protect the rights of gun owners and the gun-building community.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
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