WASHINGTON — A watchdog group is demanding documents from the Biden administration after whistleblowers alleged that a regulation is under development that would effectively ban private gun sales.
The group, Empower Oversight, said Wednesday that two sources have claimed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is preparing to propose a rule requiring background checks for most or all gun sales.
President Biden has campaigned for stricter gun laws and in August proposed a regulation to clarify that people who “repetitively” sell guns must register as federally licensed gun dealers subject to background checks.
The revised rule purportedly being crafted by the ATF would be even broader, Empower Oversight president Tristan Leavitt said in a series of posts on X.
Empower Oversight “has learned through whistleblowers within ATF that at the direction of the White House, ATF has drafted a 1,300-page document to justify a rule effectively banning the private sale of firearms,” Leavitt wrote.
“The whistleblowers say the rule is being drafted by Senior Policy Counsel Eric Epstein, who worked as the Phoenix Field Office’s Division Counsel during Operation Wide Receiver (a precursor of Operation Fast and Furious).”
Leavitt added: “Such a sweeping rule with the effect of banning private sales would clearly violate the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which declares that ‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'”
Empower Oversight sent a Freedom of Information Act request Wednesday to the Justice Department and ATF seeking additional information, including communications with the White House and any Epstein emails involving the alleged plan.
Federally licensed dealers must conduct background checks by entering gun-buyer information into the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
Although the precise wording of the pending proposal wasn’t released, the whistleblower concern stems from the fact that some sellers might be unable to easily access NICS or unaware of the need to do so, putting themselves in legal jeopardy.
The ATF already has interpreted a 2022 bipartisan gun law enacted after a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school as expanding who must register as a federally licensed dealer to include people who repetitively sell guns “to predominantly earn a profit.”
Previously, the registration only applied to sellers who had “the principal objective of livelihood and profit.”
It’s unclear what carveouts — such as for family gun transfers — may be included in the alleged pending ATF regulation, which would have to undergo a public notice and comment period.
It also is unclear what would become of the current proposed regulation that would ratify the ATF’s interpretation of the bipartisan reform law.
The public comment period for that rule ended Dec. 8 — with more than 370,000 contributions.
ATF spokeswoman Kristina Mastropasqua did not directly engage with the whistleblower allegations, but told The Post that the bureau is “reviewing and analyzing every single one” of the comments on the prior proposal.
“Because the proposed rule is still working its way through the process, we cannot comment further,” she said.
A bold new election-year proposal could serve to energize advocates of both gun control and gun rights ahead of the November general election.
If adopted, the regulation would almost certainly face litigation, and the Supreme Court — which has expanded gun rights in significant cases over the past two decades — likely would have the final word.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
