Have you read anything in this rule? Because your comment isn't any more of an "honest phrase" than the term "gun show loophole".
Well, that may be long term goal but it clearly isn't the goal of this particular rule. Defining what
“Engaged in the Business” as a Dealer in Firearms is the purpose of this rule.
Don't have time to read the entire rule? ATF has included this:
Questions and Answers: Final Rule 2022R-17F
Before posting a "opinion" on the rule, and especially before renting a table at a gun show, it would be wise to read through these Q&A's.
Here are a few from that Q&A: (
please note highlighted text in red):
Q – What does it mean to be “engaged in the business" as a wholesale or retail dealer?
A – A person is “engaged in the business” when the person devotes time, attention, and labor to
dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business to predominantly earn a profit through
the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms,
but such term shall not include a person who
makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal
collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of the person’s personal collection of firearms.
The term shall not include an auctioneer who provides only auction services on commission to
assist in liquidating firearms at an estate-type auction, provided that the auctioneer does not
purchase the firearms, or take possession of the firearms for sale on consignment.
The definition focuses on whether the intent underlying the sale or disposition of firearms is
predominantly one of obtaining pecuniary gain. There is no statutory requirement that firearms
actually be sold; indeed, a dealer may routinely (i.e., “regularly”) devote time and resources
working toward that goal as a course of trade or business, but never find a buyer or consummate
any sales due to insufficient demand or poor sales practices.
Thus, the way that Congress drafted
and amended the statute, and the way that courts have repeatedly interpreted it, no actual sales
are required if the intent element is met, and the person’s conduct demonstrates their devotion of
time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business.
Under the BSCA, a person’s intended use for the income they receive from the sale or
disposition of firearms is not relevant to the question of whether they intended to predominantly
earn pecuniary gain. If a person must sell their previously acquired firearms to generate income
for subsistence, such as to pay medical or tuition bills, they are still subject to the same
considerations as persons who intend to sell their firearms to go on a vacation, increase their
savings, or buy a sports car. If persons repetitively resell firearms and actually earn pecuniary (or
monetary) gain, whether or not it was for support or subsistence, that gain is evidence
demonstrating the intent element of being engaged in the business.
However, a single or an
isolated sale of firearms that generates pecuniary gain would not alone be sufficient to qualify as
being engaged in the business without additional conduct indicative of firearms dealing. The
issue is whether the person who exchanged the firearms for money, goods, or services was
devoting time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business
and had the predominant intent to earn a profit through repetitive firearms purchases and resales.
For example, a person who bought a firearm 40 years ago and now sells it for a substantial profit
to augment income during retirement is not engaged in the business based on this single firearms
transfer because their intent was not to earn that pecuniary gain through repetitive purchases and
resales of firearms and they are likely not dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or
business. Put another way, a bona fide collector, whose motive is not predominantly to profit,
may make incidental profit in the course of enhancing a personal collection, which would not be
engaged in the business.
Q. Is the term “occasional” defined in the BCSA or the final rule when addressing sales,
exchanges, or purchases of firearms?
A. No.
The term “occasional” is not defined in the regulatory text; however, the plain and
ordinary meaning of that term is “infrequent or irregular occurrence.” However, regular or
routine sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms (even part-time) for the enhancement of a
personal collection or for a hobby would not fall within the meaning of that term.
Q – Does the final rule require every private sale of a firearm be processed through a
licensed dealer?
A –
No. Individuals may continue to make intrastate private sales without a license provided they
do not rise to the level of being “engaged in the business,” and the transactions are otherwise
compliant with law.
Q. If a person sells their personal firearm and actually makes a profit, does that equate to
being engaged in the business as a dealer requiring a license?
A. No. A person actually “selling at a profit does not equate to engaging in the business” because
a showing of actual profit, whether or not expenses or inflation are considered, is not required to
be engaged in the business. Rather, it is the predominant intent of obtaining pecuniary gain from
sale or disposition of firearms that matters. See 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(22). Moreover, because the
person’s predominant intent to profit is the relevant fact, it does not matter how or whether actual
profit is calculated
Q – Does the definition of the new term “predominantly earn a profit” apply to all persons
who “engage in the business”?
A –
No. The definition applies only to wholesale and retail dealers in firearms. The definition of
“principal objective of livelihood and profit” remains in the regulations because it is still
applicable to persons “engaged in the business” as a manufacturer, importer, or gunsmith. Those
terms were not changed by the BSCA or this rule.
Background Checks
Q – Does this final rule create universal background checks?
A –
No. Congress has not passed a law to require universal background checks, and this rule
does not require unlicensed individuals who are not engaged in the business of manufacturing,
importing, or dealing in firearms to run background checks for private firearm sales between
individuals. The concept of “universal background checks” is not defined in Federal law, but is
commonly understood to require persons to run background checks whenever a private,
unlicensed person transfers a firearm to another, and some States have imposed this requirement.
Congress decided that only persons engaged in the business of manufacturing, importing, or
dealing in firearms must obtain a license and run National Instant Criminal Background Check
System (NICS) background checks on firearm transferees. Nonetheless, increasing licensure of
persons who are currently engaged in the business of dealing in firearms will necessarily ensure
that they will run NICS background checks when they transfer firearms at gun shows, over the
Internet, and by other means, as Congress intended.
Location questions
Q – Does the location or venue of where I sell impact whether I am considered a “dealer”?
A –
No. The term includes such activities wherever, or through whatever medium, they are
conducted, such as at a gun show or event, flea market, auction house, or gun range or club; at
one’s home; by mail order; over the Internet (e.g., online broker or auction); through the use of
other electronic means (e.g., text messaging service, social media raffle, or website); or at any
other domestic or international public or private marketplace or premises
Q – Does the final rule set a minimum threshold number of firearms purchased or sold to
be considered “engaged in the business”? If “no,” why not?
A – No. While selling large numbers of firearms or engaging or offering to engage in frequent
transactions may be highly indicative of business activity, the final rule does not set a minimum
number of firearms purchased or resold that triggers the licensing requirement.
Similarly, there is
no minimum number of transactions that determines whether a person is “engaged in the
business” of dealing in firearms. Courts have held that even one transaction or attempted
transaction can constitute “engaging in the business” if other factors or intent are present.
Establishing a minimum threshold would enable people to try to get around laws established for
public safety, like background checks and records through which firearms involved in crime can
be traced.
To determine whether an individual is “engaged in the business” the rule looks at the
totality of circumstances. Even a single isolated transaction, or offer to engage in a transaction,
when combined with other evidence, may be sufficient to require a license, such as by holding
oneself out a source to purchase and resell more firearms.
Q – Since the final rule does not set a minimum threshold number of firearms, what
criteria does it put forward to determine if a person is “engaged in the business” as a
dealer?
A – The final rule established rebuttable presumptions to help unlicensed persons, industry
operations personnel, and others determine when a person is presumed to be “engaged in the
business” requiring a dealer’s license.
There are two sets of rebuttable presumptions in this rule:
one set of conduct that demonstrates when a person is “engaged in the business” as a dealer
requiring a license, and another set that independently indicates when a person has the intent to
“predominantly earn a profit” from sales or other dispositions of firearms.
Q – I plan to buy undervalued firearms for profit but will not sell them directly to
nonlicensees; I will consign them to a Federal firearms licensee who will then sell them. Do
I need a license?
A – A person who consigns firearms for sale (consignor) may have a predominant intent to earn
a profit from the sale of the firearms; however, that does not finish the fact-specific inquiry
because that person is often not devoting time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms.
The
person engaged in the business is the seller who accepts the firearms on consignment
(consignee), is paid to take the firearms into a business inventory for resale, and determines the
manner in which to market and resell them on the consignor’s behalf. Like consignment-type
auctioneers, firearms consignment businesses must be licensed because they are devoting time,
attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business to
predominantly earn a profit through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms.
Q – Is a nonlicensee who rents space to display firearms they offer for sale presumed to
have intent to predominantly earn a profit from the firearms they sell?
A –
A person is presumed to have the intent to predominantly earn a profit through the repetitive
purchase and resale of firearms, absent reliable evidence to the contrary, when the person
“repetitively or continuously purchases or rents, or otherwise exchanges (directly or indirectly)
something of value to secure permanent or temporary physical space to display firearms they
offer for resale, including part or all of a business premises, a table or space at a gun show, or a
display case.” Of course, like the other presumptions, this one may be refuted with reliable
evidence to the contrary.
Conduct not presumed to be engaged in the business
Q – Does the final rule provide examples of when a person would not be presumed to be
engaged in the business requiring a license as a dealer?
A – Yes. Under this final rule,
a person would not be presumed to be “engaged in the business”
requiring a license as a dealer when reliable evidence shows the person transfers firearms only:
o As bona fide gifts;
o Occasionally to obtain more valuable, desirable, or useful firearms for their personal
collection;
o Occasionally to a licensee or a to a family member for lawful purposes;
o To liquidate (without restocking) all or part of their personal collection; or
o To liquidate firearms
o That are inherited; or
o Pursuant to a court order; or
o To assist in liquidating firearms as an auctioneer when providing auction services on
commission at an estate-type auction.
The final rule provides objectively reasonable standards for when a person is presumed to be
“engaged in the business” to strike an appropriate balance that captures persons who should be
licensed, without limiting or regulating activity truly for the purposes of a hobby or enhancing a
personal collection.
Q – Does the final rule place additional restrictions on law-abiding citizens who wish to
transfer firearms to family or friends, or to sell all or part of a personal collection of
firearms?
A –
This rule does not place additional restrictions on law-abiding citizens who occasionally
acquire or sell personal firearms to enhance a personal collection or for a hobby. This rule does
not prevent law abiding persons from purchasing or possessing firearms, from selling inherited
firearms, or from using their personal firearms for lawful purposes such as self-defense, reenactments, or hunting.
The rule includes a non-exhaustive list of conduct that does not
constitute being engaged in the business and that may also be used to rebut the presumptions, as
well as other examples of conduct that does not demonstrate a predominant intent to profit.
, pepped up by doses of Ritalin—before a major speech in Congress—doesn’t know jack squat, but maybe Far Worse....He Doesn't Care about US citizens or anybody outside his family (if you exclude a specific granddaughter...)..
youtu.be
