Comment on FR Doc # 2026-08911

RIN 1140-AA91 | Docket No. ATF-2026-0232 | FR Doc 2026-08911 Position: Conditional support — but ATF should delete its proscribed-countries list entirely, not maintain a rolling one I support removing the outdated list of proscribed countries from 27 CFR part 447 and lifting the categorical bar on most former Soviet states. But ATF should go further. The right course is for ATF to delete its independent proscribed-country list altogether, not to replace it with a moving cross-reference to a Department of State list. After Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 144 S. Ct. 2244 (2024), agencies cannot rely on Chevron deference to sustain regulatory schemes Congress did not specifically authorize. ATF's authority under section 38 of the Arms Export Control Act is to administer permanent imports — not to maintain a parallel sanctions list duplicative of the State and Treasury Departments. Each addition or removal from a country list materially affects what arms law-abiding Americans can lawfully acquire, which means each change directly implicates the right protected by District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008). There is no Founding-era tradition of a sweeping country-of-origin bar on civilian arms (N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022)). If ATF is unwilling to delete the list entirely, at minimum it must (1) commit that any future change to the list will go through full APA notice-and-comment, (2) refuse to import-by-reference any external list maintained by another agency under different authorities and procedures, and (3) confirm in the preamble that the existence of this list does not enlarge ATF's substantive authority beyond the AECA's text. Recommendation: Repeal 27 CFR 447.52 and the proscribed-country list in its entirety. If ATF will not repeal, finalize the proposed narrowing and bind the agency to APA-compliant rulemaking for any future change.