DEVIOUS: ATF Universal Background Check Regulation Receives Thousand of Pro-Gun Control Comments Likely Coming From Bots
Jose Nino
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AmmoLand News was able to team up with data scientist Wes Scoggin to study the public comments on the proposed rule that would grant the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) the power to change what constitutes a “gun dealer.”
The new regulation would establish universal background checks through the backdoor. Any individual who sells a firearm and makes a profit from it could potentially be forced to possess a federal firearms license (FFL). On top of that, the ATF could deem any individual selling over one of a single type of firearm to be a gun dealer. The ATF asserts that the Bi-partisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) grants them the power to modify the regulations concerning dealers.
The BSCA was a piece of legislation passed in Congress with the bipartisan aid of Republicans such as Texas Senator John Cornyn, was subsequently signed into law by President Joe Biden. This has been the crowning gun control achievement of the Biden regime.
The comment section of ATF rules that were previously proposed were resoundingly pro-gun. However, support in favor of the proposed rule appeared to be largely on the side of the ATF change. So it seemed.
At that time, over 96% of the comments urged the government to implement the new regulation.
Scoggin and AmmoLand News did some investigative work on the comments to determine why the statistics were so overwhelmingly in favor of the new regulation. What they uncovered was that the overwhelming majority of the comments backing the ATF proposed rule were virtually identical.
They were able to trace the text of the comments to an Astroturf campaign conducted by Brady United. 98% of the comments backing the change read as follows:
I strongly support the proposed rule to ensure that individuals who are ‘engaged in the business’ of selling firearms are licensed, thus requiring them to complete background checks for all firearm sales and maintain records of those transactions, and that dealers who have lost their licenses may no longer sell firearms to the public. A recent study found that more than 1 in 5 gun sales in the U.S. are conducted without a background check, amounting to millions of off-the-books gun transfers annually; many of these transactions are facilitated by individuals who profit from the repetitive sale of firearms yet avoid the necessary oversight required of licensed dealers.
This is a public health and safety issue, and I urge the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to finalize the rule in order to prevent firearm transfers to prohibited purchasers and ensure that individuals who are selling guns for profit are licensed, regulated, and engage in responsible business practices.
The civilian disarmament organization kicked off an email campaign on September 9, which came around the same time that the pro-gun control comments surged.
The email features a link that lets any individual on its mailing list submit a comment to the Federal Register by simply filling out their name and clicking on a single button. Brady carries out the campaign via a website plug-in called “fastaction.” It takes a user less than 30 seconds to complete the entire process.
“It seems that this go-round that the anti-gun organizations are showing up early to flood the comments on the new ATF docket,” Scoggin said to AmmoLand. “With their ‘fastaction’ branded one-click comment scheme, it would seem there is an effort to outpace any opposing comments to the rule change. There seemed to be an emerging trend at the end of last year’s public comment window for the Frame and Brace dockets. We saw a spike in what appeared to be canned responses from these same groups, and that seems to be the case from the very beginning of this docket posting last year in the gun-related docket comment periods that have accelerated from the beginning of the comment window.”
Indeed, the anti-gun Left is committed to shaping the narrative on the gun control question. Facts are not on its side so it will resort to deception and manipulation of public opinion to bamboozle the public into supporting radical civilian disarmament measures.
Hopefully, people see through this anti-gun ruse and start putting forward pro-gun narratives.
We simply can’t afford to lose this narrative war if we’re serious about upholding our right to bear arms.
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