Movement in the Right Direction

Under 18 USC 922(g), persons prohibited from possessing a firearm include anyone who has been convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year of incarceration, regardless of the sentence that was actually imposed.  It did not matter whether or not the offense involved violence, and no matter how long ago it happened. The law also prohibits gun possession by anyone who has ever been subjected to involuntary psychiatric treatment, even if that person was never deemed a threat to others.

That person who was legally banned from possessing a firearm had to seek relief from this ban / disability by applying to the Department of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. (ATF)

However, “in the early 1990s, Congress became concerned about the number of resources that ATF was using to adjudicate requests to relieve individual Americans from disabilities on their ownership of firearms. (“The Committee believes that the approximately 40 man-years spent annually to investigate and act upon these investigations and applications would be better utilized to crack down on violent crime.”). Congressional reports also stated that judging whether applicants posed “a danger to public safety” was “a very difficult and subjective task,” id., and that “too many felons . . . whose gun ownership rights were restored went on to commit crimes with firearms.”*

So, the agency you applied to for relief was officially banned from considering the application.  (Bureaucracy at its best!)

Attorney General (AG) Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice recently introduced an interim final rule* that rescinds the delegation of that process to the ATF.

The authority to handle this issue has not yet been transferred to another branch of the DOJ.  Bondi considers this a first step to give the AG a clean slate to work with instead of trying to work around the ATF’s bureaucratic procedures.  Which makes sense since we are dealing with an ATF bureaucracy that has been dedicated to abolishing the 2nd Amendment.   

Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America said of this: "The [Justice Department's] decision to finally withdraw ATF's authority in this matter is an encouraging sign that this administration is serious about protecting the Second Amendment for all Americans."

The important thing is that we are seeing some tangible positive movement.

*Federal Register :: Withdrawing the Attorney General's Delegation of Authority