Recently we have learned the BATFE is 1) violating the law by creating a searchable digital database of gun owners, aka registry, 2) proceeding with its unconstitutional rules on 80% receivers and pistol braces, which also redefine statutory language and change the law, creating criminals overnight. Those rules also mandate indefinite records retention by ffl's, and create a new class of gunsmiths who shall mark homemade firearms with serial numbers, among other things. By redefining "readily", they alter the law on machine guns, which is designed to go after AR-15's and all semi-automatic rifles.
We need to stop them. Please write and call congress. Burn down their lines. Here is a letter you can feel free to use for talking points or copy in full if you write them. This has been copied from another site, please take a moment to our Congressmen and Senators!
EDIT. It would be possible to separate the database info and the rule making concerns into two letters giving more focus to each.
Dear Representative or Senator,
The BATFE is out of control, violating numerous laws, and must be brought to heel.
Please note the BATFE has again violated the 1986 FOPA and the 1941 Property Requisition Act that both outlaw the creation of a national firearms registry or firearm owners database. This is the second time in 20 years they have criminally violated the law. This data must be destroyed and all agents and leadership responsible must be prosecuted. Correcting the problem alone will not suffice. Accountability is required.
"While the ATF denies that these records are used to track gun owners, it transfers hard copies of the information into a searchable digital database that it says is used to trace firearms tied to crimes. The ATF reported that 865,787,086 of the records are already in a digital format."
https://freebeacon.com/guns/biden-admin-has-records-on-nearly-one-billion-gun-sales/ Digitizing the data into a searchable database is admitted and a clear violation of the law.
In addition, the BATFE is moving forward on two proposed rules which unlawfully usurp Congressional authority by redefining language in the statutes you wrote, which Congress already defined. Changing the definition of "firearm, rifle, pistol, complete silencer, readily, receiver" and other words violates Chevron deference as Congress has already spoken directly to the precise issue at question, by defining the meaning of these words in statute.
This rulemaking is not even entitled to Chevron deference in the first place. As stated by Judge Karen Batchelor of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in GOA v. Garland, “But in 2014, the Court said, “we have never held that the Government’s reading of a criminal statute is entitled to any deference.” United States v. Apel, 571 U.S. 359, 369 (2014)(emphasis added) (citing Crandon v. United States, 494 U.S. 152, 177 (1990) (Scalia, J.,concurring in the judgment)). “Never” and “any” are absolutes, and the Court did not draw any distinctions, nor add any qualifiers, or identify any exceptions.
The rule changes by BATFE will criminalize what is currently lawful behavior and the possession of legally purchased property, turning 10-40 million Americans into felons overnight (estimate by Congressional Research Service). The BATFE's revised definition of "readily" will allow the agency to reclassify AR-15's and all semi-automatic weapons as machine guns. Their reimagining of "receiver" will classify nerf guns as firearms subject to background checks, and could force Lowes, Home Depot and Toys'R'Us to register as FFL's. These two rule changes (2021R-05 and 2021R-08) must be terminated, and similar actions blocked.
Further, the penalties for NFA violations of 10 years/$250,000 for failure to pay a $200 tax constitute cruel and unusual punishment, and do not even remotely follow the schedule of penalties for tax payment delinquency. How can these penalties be justified, when IRS employees collectively owe hundreds of thousands (if not millions) in back taxes, yet are still employed and receiving annual bonuses? When citizens who owe millions are not even sentenced to a day in prison, but are offered opportunities to pay pennies on the dollar of the tax owed, the current punishment for NFA tax delinquency is unquestionably criminally cruel and unusual.
The penalties for failing to register an NFA item and pay the $200 tax must be reduced to realistic and equitable IRS penalties that follow any other failure to pay a tax. Finally, as short barreled rifles and suppressors are owned in sufficient numbers to be considered "in common use" (140,000 or more per SCOTUS' Caetano), both should immediately be removed from the NFA registration requirements.
Thank you for your attention to these pressing matters of 2nd amendment civil rights and the BATFE's criminal violations of the law.
Sincerely,
