SAF Lauds NSSF, NRA for Challenging New ATF Reporting Requirements

BELLEVUE, Wash., Aug. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Second Amendment Foundation today applauded both the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the National Rifle Association, the latter joining with J&G Sales of Prescott, AZ, for filing federal lawsuits against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives over a new reporting requirement aimed at gun dealers in four Southwest States.

"Based on revelations from the investigations into the ATF's botched Operation Fast and Furious," said SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, "it was the agency's own ineptitude, not any questionable conduct by firearms dealers, that allowed hundreds if not thousands of firearms to make it into the wrong hands. Trying to thwart gun running is what the new regulation is purportedly all about, but it appears ATF is largely responsible for creating a problem they now want to solve by penalizing gun dealers and buyers with more paperwork."

NSSF and NRA filed their separate lawsuits in federal district court in Washington, D.C.

"By limiting this new reporting requirement to some 8,500 dealers in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California," Gottlieb observed, "we have a serious question about equal protection, because the ATF is suddenly treating dealers and gun owners differently than in all the other states. And there are issues that attorneys for NRA and NSSF have raised. SAF will definitely file an amicus brief at the appropriate time.

"Nobody in the firearms community wants to see criminals armed as the result of illegal straw man purchases or other gun trafficking mechanisms," Gottlieb noted. "However, the burden of responsibility for preventing such activities should not be placed on the shoulders of firearms retailers who have habitually alerted ATF to suspicious purchases, without the necessity of a new regulation and new paperwork form.

"ATF's authority for demanding such information is questionable," he concluded. "Instead of the agency expanding its powers, right now – in the wake of the Fast and Furious scandal – ATF should be reined in by Congress."

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. In addition to the landmark McDonald v. Chicago Supreme Court Case, SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; New Orleans; Chicago  and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and numerous amicus briefs holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.

SOURCE Second Amendment Foundation