WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department decided Friday to allow more people to buy firearm suppressors — called silencers — short-barreled rifles and certain other firearms without registering them with the federal government following a court decision which overturned provisions of a key law.
The Trump administration announced changes to its enforcement policy after a Texas judge in August ruled that the permitting process was unconstitutional. The judge’s ruling was limited to the parties involved in that case, but the Justice Department said Friday it would no longer enforce registration requirements more broadly.
“The direction from the president, Congress and the courts is clear,” Rob Cekada, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said in an emailed statement. “ATF is now following suit in our law enforcement posture while continuing to ensure we remain focused where we are needed most: fighting violent crime in America’s communities.” »
It’s the latest move by the Trump administration to ease gun restrictions opposed by gun rights groups. Gun rights activists have long complained that the registration requirements — which involved filling out a form, being fingerprinted and waiting for government approval — were too burdensome.
At issue in the Texas case were regulations in a 1930s-era law, the National Firearms Act, which was passed in response to concerns about mafia violence.
U.S. District Judge James Hendrix in Texas said rules for purchasing a silencer, short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun and other firearms must be scrapped after a Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump. eliminated a $200 license tax on devices. The Justice Department chose not to appeal the judge’s decision.
Cekada told The Associated Press on Friday that after the judge’s ruling, federal law enforcement was inundated with questions from the public and members of Congress about how the government was going to handle law enforcement nationwide. The Trump administration believed “the best and fairest thing to do” was to enforce the rules nationally to avoid a confusing patchwork of regulations across the country, Cekada said in an interview.
Groups that support gun restrictions denounced the judge’s ruling and the Justice Department’s decision to leave it in place as reckless and argued that the regulations are important for public safety.
In a statement Friday, John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said Cekada has embraced the “lawlessness of the Trump administration in trying to pick and choose which federal gun laws he enforces.”
Under the new guidelines, the ATF will no longer require registration unless the buyer lives in one of about 15 states that have laws requiring people to go through the federal licensing process. The registration process will still apply to machine guns and what are considered “destructive devices” under federal law, the Justice Department said.
And in any case, people will still have to fill out the standard gun purchase form, which includes questions about items that would prevent someone from owning a gun, and they will also have to pass a background check, officials said.
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