Booker Praises New DOJ Rule Expanding Firearm Background Checks

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement after the Department of Justice announced a new rule that would reduce the number of firearms sold without a background check and address the fire sale loophole. 

“For too long, families across our country have been ripped apart by the scourge of gun violence. Under the Biden Administration, we passed and signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first significant gun violence prevention legislation passed in nearly three decades. And now, thanks to the President’s leadership, we are taking action to reduce the number of firearms sold without background checks. These common sense solutions will help save lives.

“I am especially proud to see that the new rule includes action to close the firesale loophole, which has been a priority of mine. The fireseale loophole allows federally licensed firearm dealers whose licenses are revoked to transfer their inventory to their personal collections, allowing them to sell those firearms without conducting background checks. Closing this dangerous loophole will help keep deadly weapons out of the wrong hands.”

The Department of Justice’s final rule implements the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act—the largest expansion of background checks since the Brady Bill became law.
                                                                                  
The final rule makes clear when a person needs to become a licensed dealer and run background checks, and gives the Department of Justice additional tools to crack down on individuals illegally selling guns without background checks. Specifically, the final rule:

• Lists the types of commercial activity indicating that a person must become a licensed dealer and run background checks, absent evidence showing they are in fact not engaged in the business of firearms dealing. For example, if a person is repetitively selling guns of the same or similar make and model within one year of their purchase, they are supposed to become a licensed dealer. If a person repetitively sells firearms within thirty days of purchasing those firearms, or selling firearms and tells potential buyers that they can acquire additional firearms for that buyer to purchase, the seller is supposed to become a licensed dealer.
• States that the gun show or online sale loopholes do not exist. If you are conducting business that in a brick-and-mortar store would require you to become a licensed dealer, you have to become a licensed dealer and run background checks. It does not matter whether you are dealing firearms at a gun show, online, in your home, in the trunk of a car, at a flea market, or anywhere else—you must obtain a license and run background checks results. Evidence that a person placed ads online or reserved a table at a gun show shows that the person is intending to profit from the sale.
• Prevents people from evading the licensing and background check requirements by claiming that they are just selling a few guns. The final rule clarifies that even a single firearm transaction may be sufficient to require a license, if there is other behavior to suggest commercial activity. For example, a person selling just one gun and then saying to others they are willing and able to purchase more firearms for resale may be required to obtain a license and run background checks.
• Prevents people from falsely claiming that guns are part of a personal collection in an attempt to evade the law. The statute explicitly states that making occasional sales of a firearm from a personal collection or liquidating collection does not require a federal firearms license or background checks. However, people have evaded the background check requirement by falsely claiming they are selling their personal collection. The final rule makes clear that a personal collection of firearms is limited to collections acquired for specific reasons like study; comparison; exhibition; or for a hobby, like hunting or sport shooting. A bona fide personal collection is not the same as business inventory.
• Closes the so-called firesale loophole. Gun dealers who have had their licenses revoked have sometimes then sold their former business inventory without running background checks. The final rule makes clear that a business inventory may not be transferred to a person’s personal collection after a license is revoked. Instead, a business could dispose of this inventory through another licensed seller who runs background checks.
                                                                         

Since his early days in public service, Booker has seen the devastating impact of gun violence first-hand. He is the only Senator who goes home to a low-income community that is disproportionately affected by violent crime caused by the easy availability of guns. As a result, Booker has been a forceful advocate for common-sense gun safety laws during his time in the Senate. He first introduced the Federal Firearm Licensing Act in 2019 and the Fire Sale Loophole Closing Act in 2022. He has also introduced the groundbreaking Break the Cycle of Violence Act that would provide federal grants to communities for evidence-based gun violence intervention and joined colleagues in introducing an Assault Weapons Ban. He was also a part of a bipartisan group of 20 Senators who signed on to a framework outlining the proposal to address the gun violence epidemic that resulted in the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022.