US will require background checks for gun shows and online firearm sales

AR-15 style rifles are displayed for sale at a gun show in Costa Mesa, California, in 2021. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

The sale of firearms on the internet and at gun shows in the US will in future be subject to mandatory background checks, the justice department said on Thursday as it announced a “historic” new action to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals.

The closing of the so-called gun show loophole, which exempts private transactions from restrictions that apply to licensed dealers, has long been a goal of the Biden administration, and is specifically targeted in the rule published in the federal register today.

“Under this regulation, it will not matter if guns are sold on the internet, at a gun show, or at a brick-and-mortar store: if you sell guns predominantly to earn a profit, you must be licensed, and you must conduct background checks,” attorney general Merrick Garland told reporters on a press call announcing the measure.

“This regulation is a historic step in the justice department’s fight against gun violence. It will save lives.”

The rule, which clarifies who is considered to be “engaged in the business” as a firearms dealer, will take effect in 30 days’ time, and follows a three-month consultation period that attracted almost 388,000 comments to the website of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

The White House estimates that 22% of guns owned by Americans were acquired without a background check and that about 23,000 more individuals will be required to be licensed as a dealer after the rule’s implementation.

“There is a large and growing black market of guns being sold by people in the business of dealing and doing it without a license, and therefore they are not running background checks the way the law requires,” ATF director Steven Dettelbach said.

“It’s not safe for innocent, law-abiding Americans. In fact, it’s doggone dangerous.”

Garland presented the rule as a hardening of the 2022 bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which said all persons “who devote time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business to predominately earn a profit” would be considered a dealer.

“The regulation expands the definition of who must obtain a license and conduct a background check before selling guns,” Garland said.

“It will close the gun show loophole, and it closes the fire-sale loophole by clarifying how firearms dealers who go out of business must go about liquidating their inventory.”

Inter-family transfers of firearms, or occasional sales to enhance a collection, will not be presumed business transactions, a White House spokesperson said.

The new rule is the latest in a series of unilateral steps the Biden administration has taken to tighten gun laws, while at the same time highlighting the difficulty of getting legislation through Congress.

Republicans were lukewarm to near-identical proposals by Barack Obama in 2016, towards the end of his second term, while Biden was vice-president; and, with a current House majority, have been resistant to calls for meaningful gun control measures since.

Last month, Kamala Harris, the current vice-president, visited Parkland, Florida, the site of a 2018 high school shooting that claimed 17 lives, to announce the setting up of a national resource center to assist states in implementing red flag laws.

In September, Biden tapped Harris to lead the first federal gun violence prevention office, and the pair have repeatedly urged Congress to pass tougher regulations, including a ban on private ownership of assault weapons.

“For decades, many dealers who sell weapons someplace other than the traditional gun store, say a gun show or flea market, or through social media, have gotten away without conducting background checks,” she told reporters on the call.

“Every year, thousands of unlicensed dealers sell tens of thousands of guns without a single background check to buyers who, if they had been required to pass a background check, would have failed, for example, domestic abusers, violent felons and even children.

“This single gap in our federal background check system has caused unimaginable pain and suffering. I believe countless families and communities will be spared the horror and heartbreak of gun violence by this new rule.”