DoJ announces new gun reporting rules in SW states

[Dave Workman]

BOHICA:

DoJ announces gun reporting requirements; Issa, Grassley respond
   
Late Monday, the Department of Justice announced that it will begin requiring gun dealers in four Southwest Border states to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines.

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-seattle/breaking-doj-announces-gun-reporting-requirements-issa-grassley-respond

[AZRedhawk44]

I will head out when this takes effect and "poke the bear" by buying a pair of AR receivers.

A "plum crazy" will cost me $125 complete with M4 buttstock and cheapo trigger parts, and I also need a good one to build an A2 match lower on anyways.

ETA:

Adding non-"examiner" source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gun-dealers-will-have-to-report-multiple-semiautomatic-rifle-sales/2011/07/11/gIQAy3SI9H_story.html

[AZRedhawk44]

Just called my funstore.

They have a PlumCrazy and a Sun Devil sitting aside for me.  They aren't complying with this today... waiting for instructions from their "betters" before reporting.  Told 'em I wanted to buy after the rule went into effect.  They laughed, and said sure.

[kgbsquirrel]

A bit of snark from my friend trapped in Massachusetts: "Why should we have to report that information, when they are the ones buying them to start with."


On a more serious note reading through this I keep seeing the refrain "requests for information" without actually saying what specific information they are being required to report. I seem to recall a little law passed some time ago that forbids the federal government from collecting and compiling personally identifiable data on gun purchases, but then again, when has existing law (or the Constitution) ever been a major concern before.

[MikeB]

I'm not normally into conspiracy theories, but ...

The decision comes in the middle of a congressional investigation into a bungled ATF gun-smuggling investigation code-named “Fast and Furious.” Many current and former ATF agents said that if the new reporting rule had been in place, it might have prevented the types of mistakes made by the ATF in that investigation.

...

The ATF has been trying to get the rule through for more than a year. Last year, the Obama administration shelved the proposed rule before the midterm elections. Sources, who asked to remain anonymous because they were discussing internal deliberations, said that the effort was shelved by then-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a veteran of battles with the gun lobby during the Clinton administration. The rule went through two comment periods.

So since they can't get the bill through, they allow straw purchases to justify the rule? Again not a fan of conspiracy theories, but this is just a bit much.

[MechAg94]

I'm not normally into conspiracy theories, but ...

So since they can't get the bill through, they allow straw purchases to justify the rule? Again not a fan of conspiracy theories, but this is just a bit much.

But they were not straw purchases.  They were purchases the stores knew were bad, but the govt told them to sell them anyway. 

I would like the rule if they would just make it so any govt agent or govt informant has to have their purchases reported publically, not just to the ATF.

[MechAg94]

And here is the statement from Sen. Grassley:

    “We’ve learned from our investigation of Fast and Furious that reporting multiple long gun sales would do nothing to stop the flow of firearms to known straw purchasers because many Federal Firearms Dealers are already voluntarily reporting suspicious transactions.  In fact, in just the documents we’ve obtained, we are aware of 150 multiple long guns sales associated with the ATF’s Fast and Furious case, and despite the fact that nearly all of these sales were reported in real time by cooperating gun dealers, the ATF watched the guns be transported from known straw purchasers to third parties and then let the guns walk away, often across the border.  This makes it pretty clear that the problem isn’t lack of burdensome reporting requirements.  The administration’s continued overreach with regulations continues, and is a distraction from its reckless policy to allow guns to walk into Mexico.”

I like that quote.

So:
1.  Does the ATF have the authority to simply make a new rule like this without authorization?
2.  Is the law murky enough to allow courts to let it ride?

[griz]

PR  and nothing more.  At a press conference soon we will hear this new rule trotted out as a solution to the problems of the gunrunner fiasco.  The reporter asking the question is extremely unlikely to know that reporting multiple sales was already done by concerned dealers in most of the Fast & Furious cases, and the new rule does nothing at all to address the real problem, which is the ATF.

[AZRedhawk44]

PR  and nothing more.  At a press conference soon we will hear this new rule trotted out as a solution to the problems of the gunrunner fiasco.  The reporter asking the question is extremely unlikely to know that reporting multiple sales was already done by concerned dealers in most of the Fast & Furious cases, and the new rule does nothing at all to address the real problem, which is the ATF.

Any nooz is good nooz, when you need to sweep bad nooz into "yesterday" and not have it show up anymore "today."

[AZRedhawk44]

Got my pair of AR lowers today.

[zxcvbob]

What are the cheapest guns that would qualify and are decent shooters?  I'm flying down to Houston in a couple of weeks and driving back.  Thought I might buy a couple of SKS's just to give the F-Troop something to do, but those don't have a detachable magazine.

(also I'm a licensed collector, so the SKS might not get reported anyway cuz it's on the C&R list)

[AZRedhawk44]

What are the cheapest guns that would qualify and are decent shooters?  I'm flying down to Houston in a couple of weeks and driving back.  Thought I might buy a couple of SKS's just to give the F-Troop something to do, but those don't have a detachable magazine.

(also I'm a licensed collector, so the SKS might not get reported anyway cuz it's on the C&R list)

AR lowers.

Low end stuff can be obtained less than $100, and a great stripped lower with the highest quality construction can be obtained for less  than $200.

Aside from that?

Ruger Minis.
Beretta CX-4's.
Hi-Point carbines.
Marlin Camp carbines.
M1 carbines.
AK's.
Saigas (but I repeat myself).
PSL's.
FALs.
CETMEs.

[AZRedhawk44]

This stuff is heating up.

A House Committee has just defunded the portion of the ATF charged with enforcing this, according to an NRA-ILA email I got.

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?ID=6989

Of course, given the House's opinion of how money is being spent by the Executive branch, they're probably likely to take away anything that has Obama's demeanor around it.

Alan Korwin has a "Page 9" email all about this that recently came out, too.  Charging it as an Unconstitutional usurpation of power... after all, Congress made a law in order to require reporting of multiple handgun sales, but deliberately left out rifles from that requirement.  Adding reporting requirements to the law is the onus of Congress.  Not the Executive branch.