WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is nominating an Obama-era U.S.
The administration is also releasing a final version of its ghost gun rule, which comes with the White House and the Justice Department under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths.
However, the announcement on guns also highlights the limits of Biden’s influence to push a sweeping congressional overhaul of the nation’s firearm laws in response to both a recent surge in violent crime and continued mass shootings.
Dettlebach’s confirmation, too, is likely to be an uphill battle.
Both Republican and Democratic administrations have failed to get nominees for the ATF position through the politically fraught process since the director’s position was made confirmable in 2006.
Gun safety groups and Democrats in Congress have been pushing for the Justice Department to finish the rule for months.
“Just as we opposed the Trump Administration’s arbitrary ban on bump stocks, GOA will also sue Biden’s ATF to halt the implementation of this rule,” Aidan Johnston, the group’s director of federal affairs said in a statement.
Justice Department statistics show that nearly 24,000 ghost guns were recovered by law enforcement at crime scenes and reported to the government from 2016 to 2020.
Manufacturers must also run background checks before a sale — as they do with other commercially made firearms. The requirement applies regardless of how the firearm was made, meaning it includes ghost guns made from individual parts, kits, or by 3D-printers.
Federally licensed firearms dealers must retain key records until they shut down their business or licensed activity and then transfer the records to ATF as they are currently required to do at the end of licensed activity.
For years, federal officials have been sounding the alarm about an increasing black market for homemade, military-style semi-automatic rifles and handguns.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who was attending Monday’s event at the White House, applauded the move and pointed to a serious uptick in ghost guns being found by police.
He said the move is likely to help drive down violence and aid both police and prosecutors in bringing their cases.
The critical component in building an untraceable gun is what is known as the lower receiver, a part typically made of metal or polymer.
Police across the country have been reporting spikes in ghost guns being recovered by officers.
A gunman who killed his wife and four others in Northern California in 2017 had been prohibited from owning firearms, but he built his own to skirt the court order before his rampage.