The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is moving to require federally licensed firearms retailers to report multiple sales of modern sporting rifles beginning Jan. 5, 2011.


Several sources, including the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the Washington Post, report that the ATF requirement calls for firearms retailers to report multiple sales, or other dispositions, of two or more .22 caliber or larger semi-automatic rifles that are capable of accepting a detachable magazine and are purchased by the same individual within five consecutive business days.


Although The Washington Post suggests that the reporting mandate would be limited to retailers along the Southwest border in order to help stem the flow of American-bought guns into Mexico, the NSSF said the the Federal Register Notice does not limit the geographic scope of the reporting requirement.

According to the NSSF, the mandate was originally pushed by the anti-gun Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) coalition, headed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, more than a year and a half ago. Additionally, the Post reported that the Department of Justice has “languished” over this plan for several months.


The NSSF said it opposes this reporting requirement because it “further burdens America’s law-abiding firearms retailers with yet another onerous regulation that will do nothing to curb crime.” The NSSF opines that multiple sales reporting of long guns will actually make it more difficult for licensed retailers to help law enforcement as traffickers modify their illegal schemes to circumvent the reporting requirement, thereby driving traffickers further underground.

 

In fact, thre NSSF said ATF has not specified under what legal authority it presumes to act. The decision as to whether ATF can move forward with this agenda-driven mandate will be left to Cass Sunstein who heads the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). This is the same Cass Sunstein who in a 2007 speech at Harvard University said, “We ought to ban hunting, if there isn’t a purpose other than sport and fun. That should be against the law. It’s time now.”