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‘Congress Makes Law, Not POTUS!’: Rep. Massie Slams Biden Admin Over Gun Crackdown Report

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


A leading GOP conservative is calling out the Biden administration following a report that the president is considering executive action regulating so-called “ghost guns” — firearms made at home or those that lack serial numbers.

Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky blasted President Biden for bypassing Congress and subverting the Second Amendment.

“The Constitution does not authorize the federal government to prevent you from making your own firearm,” Massie wrote on Twitter. “This a fact that has been recognized for 200+ years. Also, Article 1, Section 1 (literally the first operative sentence in the Constitution) says Congress makes law, not POTUS!”

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“Under current law, a person can manufacture a homemade firearm without serial numbers for their personal use. A serial number, however, is required if the firearm is sold or transferred to another person. This is only applicable for hobbyists, not people who are in the business of manufacturing, buying, and/or selling guns. These homemade firearms are regulated under the Gun Control Act of 1968,” The Daily Wire reported a year ago when Biden first made public mention of “ghost gun” regulations.

Noted gun expert Stephen Gutowski: “I don’t understand the White House strategy here. They’re going to put up another political guy for ATF director which means it’ll be a big gun-control fight right before the midterms. And they’re rushing the ‘ghost gun’ rule into effect early too.”

“Guns have consistently polled low on Americans’ priority list Biden’s entire presidency and his handling of the issue has been poor as well,” Gutowski added on Twitter. “Republicans are now more trusted on the issue than Democrats. And yet the White House is leaning into it anyway.”

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“Maybe it will make some of the gun-control groups happy, but these moves seem too in the weeds for most grassroots Dems to get excited about. I’m not sure anyone goes to the polls because the ATF has a permanent director instead of an acting one,” the expert said.

“I can’t imagine Senators King, Tester, Sinema, and Manchin are too happy to re-litigate the ATF director fight again, though,” Gutowski added.

A White House ‘fact sheet’ on the issue published Monday says, in part:

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Today, the President and Deputy Attorney General will also announce that the U.S. Department of Justice has issued a final rule to rein in the proliferation of “ghost guns” – unserialized, privately-made firearms that law enforcement are increasingly recovering at crime scenes in cities across the country. Last year alone, there were approximately 20,000 suspected ghost guns reported to ATF as having been recovered by law enforcement in criminal investigations – a ten-fold increase from 2016.[1] Because ghost guns lack the serial numbers marked on other firearms, law enforcement has an exceedingly difficult time tracing a ghost gun found at a crime scene back to an individual purchaser.

This final rule bans the business of manufacturing the most accessible ghost guns, such as unserialized “buy build shoot” kits that individuals can buy online or at a store without a background check and can readily assemble into a working firearm in as little as 30 minutes with equipment they have at home. This rule clarifies that these kits qualify as “firearms” under the Gun Control Act, and that commercial manufacturers of such kits must therefore become licensed and include serial numbers on the kits’ frame or receiver, and commercial sellers of these kits must become federally licensed and run background checks prior to a sale – just like they have to do with other commercially-made firearms.

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