Comment on FR Doc # 2026-08919
Joe JovinoOpposeIndividual
Summary: The commenter, a private firearm collector, opposes the proposed rule because it preserves legal theories they believe were already rejected by the courts. They argue that the rule still unfairly targets law-abiding individuals by allowing personal collection activities to be used as evidence of unlicensed dealing.
I strongly oppose this proposed rule as written and urge ATF to rescind the Biden "Engaged in the Business" framework in its entirety rather than issuing a partial replacement that preserves the same legal theories a federal court already rejected in Texas v. ATF. I am a collector who occasionally sells firearms from my personal collection. Under ATF's surviving enforcement framework, maintaining a list of my guns, reselling a model, or listing a firearm for sale can still be used as evidence against me - even though I am not a dealer and have never acted as one. Specifically, I urge ATF to: (1) rescind all retained sections of the 2024 Biden rule, including any provisions allowing routine personal collection activities to be used as evidence of unlicensed dealing; (2) eliminate the assertion that intent alone is sufficient to establish unlicensed dealing, a theory the Texas court rejected; (3) issue a new rule that follows the plain statutory language of federal law and the limits Congress imposed; and (4) clearly reject all legal theories already vacated by federal courts. A rule that survives in fragments still threatens the same law-abiding Americans it targeted from the start.