Republican senators said Thursday they will pursue legislation to overturn President Biden’s new gun control regulation that would expand the universe of gun sales subject to background checks.
Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis will lead the effort, according to Mr. Cornyn’s office. They were the chief Republican sponsors of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a 2022 law that Mr. Biden says gives him the authority to expand the checks.
“The administration is acting lawlessly here, and the vast majority of this rule has nothing to do with the BSCA,” Mr. Cornyn’s office said. “Of course, this rule has been on the administration’s wish list for many years despite Congress rejecting these provisions repeatedly.”
Mr. Biden’s new rule expands the universe of people deemed to be “engaged in the business” of firearms dealing. It now will include tens of thousands of people whom the government argues make money off buying and selling guns, but who operate out of gun shows and online ads rather than out of brick-and-mortar stores.
He says the change follows from the 2022 law, passed in the wake of several high-profile mass shootings.
Mr. Cornyn, Texas Republican, and Mr. Tillis, North Carolina Republican, say he’s stretching the law beyond its bounds.
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Rep. Andrew Clyde, Georgia Republican, is sponsoring a companion bill in the House.
The lawmakers plan to use a procedure under the Congressional Review Act, sometimes known as the congressional veto, to try to derail the new rule.
Resolutions under the CRA cannot be filibustered, meaning the senators only need to muster a majority in both the House and Senate to pass. But the president would likely veto the resolution and it would then take a two-thirds vote of both houses to override the veto and fully erase the new rule.
The background check system is supposed to keep guns from being sold to those Congress has deemed too dangerous to possess them. Among those banned are felons, fugitives, illegal immigrants, drug users and the mentally infirm.
Under the current system, only licensed dealers are required to conduct checks. Gun control activists complain that tens of thousands of weapons are sold by people who look and act like dealers but aren’t doing the checks.
The new rule is aimed at pushing them to conduct the checks.
The policy lays out some tests for who is covered, including whether someone is repeatedly advertising sales, reserves space at shows or flea markets, keeps profit and loss records, or uses credit cards for sales.
The policy takes effect in about a month. Biden officials figure it could capture about 20,000 people they say are engaged in firearms dealing without a license.
“Under this regulation, it will not matter if guns are sold on the internet, at a gun show, or at a brick-and-mortar store: if you sell guns predominantly to earn a profit, you must be licensed, and you must conduct background checks,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said.
Critics view the new rule as part of a broader attempt to cut into Americans’ gun rights.
“The president is claiming this will keep guns out of the hands of felons, and he knows better,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation. “If history has taught us anything, it would be that criminals do not obtain the guns they use through legitimate channels, and that gun control laws have never prevented criminals from obtaining a firearm. All this rule will accomplish is to place yet another burden on honest citizens wanting to exercise their Second Amendment rights.”