One of the “under the radar” gun control activities the POTUS has been working on pertains to BATF. Along with getting a White House pick for Director of the agency a couple executive orders were issued for ATF rule changes. You see, the ATF can change many of its rules without having to pass laws through Congress.
41P proposes to make these changes to the National Firearms Act (NFA), which governs possession of items like the ones pictured above:
The first two changes are annoying but not horrible. The requirements change to require a CLEO signoff for corporations and trusts, however, is a big change. People who qualify as CLEO are typically elected officials- and a large number of them choose not to sign on any NFA items- so people cannot obtain them. That’s called gun control, ladies and gentlemen. Which of course is exactly what the DOJ and White House want.
The strange thing is that initial speculation was that this rule change would be slammed through in record time- especially with the public comment period ending the week of the anniversarry of the tragedy in Newtown, CT. But the link above indicates that the rule change won’t take effect until June 2014. That leaves people who want to purchase NFA items time to get paperwork filed – GunTrustLawyer is a good place to read up on the process if you are interested.
And for a jaw-dropping rumor (and it’s only a rumor right now)–I ran a cross a claim that a Class 3 (NFA) firearms dealer says his ATF examiner said that the whole rule change is a “No go” and that “nothing has changed, or is expected to“. Wow- if that proves to be true it would be a collossal FAIL for the White House on expanding gun control. I’m tempering my hopes but it’s a very pleasant thought, isn’t it? If you can substantiate this rumor please leave a comment below citing the source.