Report: Administration preps new gun regulations

TheHill.com is reporting that the Justice Department plans to move forward this year with more than a dozen new gun-related regulations, citing a list of rules the agency has proposed to enact before the end of the Obama administration.

From the article:

The regulations range from new restrictions on high-powered pistols to gun storage requirements. Chief among them is a renewed effort to keep guns out of the hands of people who are mentally unstable or have been convicted of domestic abuse.

Gun safety advocates have been calling for such reforms since the Sandy Hook school shooting nearly three years ago in Newtown, Conn. They say keeping guns away from dangerous people is of primary importance.

But the gun lobby contends that such a sweeping ban would unfairly root out a number of prospective gun owners who are not a danger to society.

(Note the biased terms used throughout. In case you can't tell, the "gun safety advocates" are the anti-gun rights extremists - they have never been about "gun safety," but rather only "gun control" - a term that TheHill's reporter obviously knows tests very negatively in polls. The "gun lobby," on the other hand, are people who advocate for self-defense rights, and who offer instruction on safe gun handling.)

The article goes on to say the Justice Department plans to issue new rules expanding criteria for people who do not qualify for gun ownership, according to the recently released Unified Agenda, which is a list of rules that federal agencies are developing.

Some of the rules come in response to President Obama’s call to reduce gun violence in the wake of Sandy Hook. He issued 23 executive actions shortly after the shooting aimed at keeping guns away from dangerous people, and some of those items remain incomplete.

“If America worked harder to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, there would be fewer atrocities like the one that occurred in Newtown,” Obama said at the time.

...

Congressional efforts to expand background checks and keep guns away from dangerous people have failed in recent years, but the legislative defeats won’t stop the Justice Department from regulating.

The Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is looking to revive a rule proposed way back in 1998 that would block domestic abusers from owning guns.

As proposed, the regulation makes it illegal for some who has been convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence offense to own a gun.

The ATF plans to finalize the rule by November, according to the Unified Agenda.

But gun rights advocates are concerned the Obama administration will use this rule to unfairly target certain gun owners.

According to the article, the ATF is also looking to prohibit the mentally ill from owning firearms, and implement rules that would require gun dealers to report gun thefts, provide gun storage and safety devices, and place restrictions on "high-powered pistols."

In the wake of Democrats' losses last November and President Obama's promise to bypass Congress to enact gun control, the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre has warned that "the next 700 days are the most dangerous days in the history of the Second Amendment."

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, BFA PAC Vice Chairman, and an NRA-certified firearms instructor. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website.