Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

President's Column | Obama's Latest Edict Could Turn Peaceable Gun Owners Into Felons

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

President's Column | Obama's Latest Edict Could Turn Peaceable Gun Owners Into Felons

The problem with what the president is doing is that he’s not simply posing a danger to the constitutional system. He’s becoming the very danger the Constitution was designed to avoid.”

That definition of Barack Obama’s presidency—made by Georgetown University law professor Jonathan Turley—sums up Obama’s latest gun control by edict that will create whole new classes of felons out of peaceable, law-abiding citizens.

Obama’s January 2016 announcement of his series of unconstitutional executive actions designed to bypass Congress includes setting into motion plans to disarm Social Security recipients who require assistance in managing their financial affairs. It could affect hundreds of thousands of elderly Americans.

But the centerpiece of this power-abuse nightmare is Obama’s scheme—under the guise of expanding background checks—to criminalize transfers of firearms between individuals who do not obtain a federal firearms license.

Obama laid out this attack without any specifics, as details will be written by legions of lawyers and thus may change.

Furthermore, the administration is saying that the “sunshine” strictures of the Administrative Procedures Act, requiring publication and public comment on new or changed regulations, don’t apply to Obama’s edicts, claiming such proclamations are merely “guidance.”

Under the U.S. Constitution, laws can be enacted only by the Congress, but with Obama’s royal hubris, he is altering those statutes wholesale, creating changes that will send innocent people to prison.

In Obama’s world, ordinary citizens transferring firearms under what today are perfectly legal circumstances would be required to obtain a federal firearms license or face federal prosecution. Such a license could open your doors to unannounced federal inspection of your home. The constitutional welcome mat saying “Get a Warrant” will no longer exist if you own guns.

Consider that it is already a federal felony to knowingly transfer a firearm—any firearm, anywhere—to a prohibited person: felon, fugitive from justice, adjudicated lunatic, drug dealer, etc. And equally, it is a felony for such persons to obtain a firearm or possess a firearm. Real criminal commerce in firearms couldn’t be any more illegal than it already is. So this isn’t about crime; it is about instilling fear, intimidating the law-abiding and ending legal commerce.

So what turns an individual gun owner into an illegal “dealer” subject to arrest and prosecution for not obtaining a license. How many gun transfers would turn an ordinary unlicensed person into a felon?

As reported in the Washington Free Beacon, Obama’s Attorney General

Loretta Lynch opined, “It can be as few as one or two depending upon the circumstances under which the person sells the gun.” As for who will be prosecuted, Lynch said, “We will be looking for those individuals who seek to avoid registering.” (Emphasis added.)

An Obama adviser, Valerie Jarrett, took it further: “ATF will make clear that whether you are ‘engaged in the business’ depends on … factors such as: whether you represent yourself as a dealer, such as making business cards or taking credit card statements; whether you sell firearms shortly after they’re acquired; or whether you buy or sell in the original packaging.”

Will a “new” or “in the box” sale define you as an illegal, felonious dealer with nothing more?

In truth, the black letter of the law clearly defines who is engaging in the business as someone who “devotes time, attention and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms.” And it exempts “occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby.”

That definition was a hard-fought, carefully constructed reaction to years of ATF and Justice Department abuses against citizens in the past.

For those of us old enough to have been in the bipartisan fight to stop the massive civil liberties excesses of ATF and Justice Department in the 1970s and 1980s—where thousands of innocent gun owners were arrested and prosecuted for “engaging in the business without a license”—we know that with Obama, the past will be the future.

With massive support from gun owners, led by the NRA, Congress enacted the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986, and it stopped the “engaging in the business without a license” abuses cold.

So here it is, 30 years later, Obama and his axis of gun banners would restart that engine of wrath against ordinary law-abiding Americans. We must stop them in their tracks.

It is imperative that you contact your senators and representatives and tell them to stand and fight to end Obama’s executive decree war on the Second Amendment.

BY Allan Cors

President

Allan Cors is the President of the National Rifle Association of America.

TRENDING NOW
U.S. House Passes Reconciliation Bill, Removing Suppressors from the National Firearms Act

News  

Second Amendment  

Thursday, May 22, 2025

U.S. House Passes Reconciliation Bill, Removing Suppressors from the National Firearms Act

Earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.1 the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included Section 2 of the Hearing Protection Act, completely removing suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA).

NRA and 2A Allies Announce NFA Lawsuit

Monday, July 7, 2025

NRA and 2A Allies Announce NFA Lawsuit

Following the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill”—which eliminates the National Firearms Act of 1934’s (NFA) excise tax on suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and AOWs—the National Rifle Association issued a joint statement along with the ...

Congress Passes the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” Now Headed to President Trump

News  

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Congress Passes the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” Now Headed to President Trump

Earlier today the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” This bill contained a provision that would, among other things, eliminate the burdensome $200 excise tax imposed by federal law on suppressors, short-barreled firearms, ...

United Nation’s Attack on Ammunition Formally Begins

News  

Monday, July 7, 2025

United Nation’s Attack on Ammunition Formally Begins

The recently concluded negotiations on the United Nations’ Global Framework on Through-Life Conventional Ammunition Management (Framework) should be of grave concern to anyone who values the constitutional protections afforded by the Second Amendment. 

DOJ Declines to Seek Supreme Court Review of Decision Striking Down Federal Laws Prohibiting FFLs From Selling Handguns to 18-to-20-Year-Olds

Thursday, July 10, 2025

DOJ Declines to Seek Supreme Court Review of Decision Striking Down Federal Laws Prohibiting FFLs From Selling Handguns to 18-to-20-Year-Olds

In Reese v. ATF, the Fifth Circuit held that 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(b)(1) and (c)(1)—which together forbid Federal Firearms Licensees from selling handguns to 18-to-20-year-olds—violate the Second Amendment.

U.K. Embarks on Fresh Knife Amnesty, Reminds Americans Why 1776 was a Good Idea

News  

Monday, July 7, 2025

U.K. Embarks on Fresh Knife Amnesty, Reminds Americans Why 1776 was a Good Idea

It has been a while since we’ve looked at weapon news from across the pond, but with Americans everywhere having just celebrated the Glorious Fourth and our independence from British monarchy, the timing seems particular ...

President Trump Signs the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into Law

News  

Friday, July 4, 2025

President Trump Signs the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into Law

Earlier today, on the 4th of July, a day on which our Founding Fathers declared their intent for a free nation, the President of the United State of America, Donald Trump, signed the “One Big ...

NRA-ILA July 2025 Litigation Update

Thursday, July 10, 2025

NRA-ILA July 2025 Litigation Update

In the second quarter of 2025, the National Rifle Association filed two cert petitions in the U.S. Supreme Court and five amicus briefs, while continuing to litigate dozens of ongoing lawsuits across the country.

Florida: Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday Signed by Governor

Monday, July 7, 2025

Florida: Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday Signed by Governor

Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed the Florida Budget for Fiscal Year 2025–2026, which includes a Second Amendment sales tax holiday from September 8 through December 31, 2025. The NRA is thankful for Governor DeSantis’ strong ...

North Carolina: Update on Gun Bills Moving through the General Assembly

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

North Carolina: Update on Gun Bills Moving through the General Assembly

Recently, House Bill 193 (H193) was reported favorably out of both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Rules Committee, with amendments.

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.