Ghost gun rule unveiled by Biden

Ex-U.S. attorney gets nod for ATF

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 11, 2022, as Mia Tretta , President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris listen before Biden announces a final version of the administration's ghost gun rule, which comes with the White House and the Justice Department under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 11, 2022, as Mia Tretta , President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris listen before Biden announces a final version of the administration's ghost gun rule, which comes with the White House and the Justice Department under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden on Monday took fresh aim at ghost guns, the privately made firearms without serial numbers that are increasingly cropping up in violent crimes, as he attempts to break past gun-control opposition to address firearm deaths.

Speaking at the White House, Biden highlighted the Justice Department's work to finalize new regulations to crack down on ghost guns and announced the nomination of Steve Dettelbach, who served as a U.S. attorney in Ohio from 2009-16, to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

"Law enforcement is sounding the alarm," Biden said of ghost guns, briefly holding one up for cameras to see in the Rose Garden. "Our communities are paying the price."

He promised the new regulations would save lives.

Still, the announcement on guns highlights the limits of Biden's influence to push a sweeping congressional overhaul of the nation's firearm laws in response to both a recent surge in violent crime and continued mass shootings.

Congress has deadlocked on legislative proposals to change gun laws for a decade. Executive actions have faced stiff headwinds in federal courts -- even as the Democratic base has grown more vocal in calling on Biden to take more consequential action.

Dettelbach's confirmation, too, is likely to be an uphill battle. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have failed to get nominees for the ATF position through the politically fraught process since the director's position was made confirmable in 2006.

Since then, only one nominee, former U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones, has been confirmed. Jones made it through the Senate in 2013 but only after a six-month struggle.

Biden had to withdraw the nomination of his first ATF nominee, gun-control advocate David Chipman.

Chipman, a former bureau agent who had vowed to take on the gun lobby, stepped aside in September after Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, expressed opposition to Chipman after a pressure campaign from gun owners in his state and national groups.

Dettelbach is known for criminal prosecutions, hate-crime cases and voting-rights investigations.


During an unsuccessful bid for Ohio attorney general in 2018, Dettelbach supported an assault weapons ban, universal background checks and tighter restrictions on gun buyers with mental health problems.

In early 2021, he said he was "interested" in leaving his post at a law firm to reclaim his old job. Officials in the Biden administration also discussed whether Dettelbach should oversee the Justice Department's civil division, which defends administration policies in court, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Dettelbach, a Democrat, has never run a national law enforcement organization and never worked at the ATF. On Sunday, White House officials described him as an uncontroversial nominee who had been confirmed unanimously as a U.S. attorney.

Republicans are already poring over videos and news accounts of Dettelbach's campaign. Rank-and-file agents respect and like the agency's acting head, Marvin Richardson, according to multiple people who work with the bureau.

Larry Keane, a top official with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry trade group that led the charge against Chipman, said he was disappointed that Biden had not chosen to permanently appoint Richardson, who is expected to retire soon.

"The current acting director is a well-qualified African American man," Keane wrote in a text message Sunday. "We will examine Mr. Dettelbach's record and qualifications and listen carefully to his confirmation hearing testimony. From what we have seen of his record thus far, we have concerns."

But Dettelbach, who needs the support of all 50 Senate Democrats, enjoys one advantage over Chipman -- a powerful ally in the upper chamber. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is close to Dettelbach, and has assured administration officials he would push hard for his nomination.

Christian Heyne, the vice president of policy at Brady, a gun-control group, said Dettelbach was "an unimpeachable public servant who has spent a career using the levers of government to hold negligent or nefarious actors accountable."

"Steve Dettelbach is an experienced public servant who served Ohio as U.S. attorney with honor and integrity," Brown said in a statement Sunday. "He has demonstrated a strong commitment to justice, inclusive leadership, and to strengthening relationships between law enforcement and the community. He would serve our nation well as ATF director."

By contrast, Chipman, who serves as a consultant with the gun-control group founded by Gabrielle Giffords, a former representative of Arizona, said the White House had done little to defend him after gun rights groups mobilized to defeat him.

GHOST GUN RULE

For nearly a year, the ghost gun rule has been making its way through the federal regulation process. Gun safety groups and Democrats in Congress have been pushing for the Justice Department to finish the rule for months.

Activists, who have pressed Biden to fulfill his campaign promise to make the issue a top priority, expressed tempered support for the measures, while calling on the White House to establish an independent office on gun violence. Susan Rice, Biden's domestic policy adviser, opposes such a move -- but strongly supported Dettelbach's selection, according to people close to the process.

Groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety applauded Biden's moves and insisted that both Dettelbach's appointment and the finalized rule will help combat gun violence.

"Ghost guns look like a gun, they shoot like a gun, and they kill like a gun, but up until now they haven't been regulated like a gun," said John Feinblatt, Everytown's president.

Justice Department statistics show that nearly 24,000 ghost guns were recovered by law enforcement at crime scenes and reported to the government from 2016-20. It is hard to say how many are circulating on the streets, in part because in many cases police departments don't contact the government about the guns because they can't be traced.

The new rule changes the current definition of a firearm under federal law to include unfinished parts, like the frame of a handgun or the receiver of a long gun. It says those parts must be licensed and include serial numbers.

Manufacturers must also run background checks before a sale -- as they do with other commercially made firearms. The requirement applies regardless of how the firearm was made, meaning it includes ghost guns made from individual parts, kits, or by 3D-printers.

Federally licensed firearms dealers must retain key records until they shut down their business or licensed activity and then transfer the records to ATF as they are currently required to do at the end of licensed activity. Previously, these dealers were permitted to destroy most records after 20 years, making it harder for law enforcement to trace firearms found at crime scenes.

"A year ago this week standing here with many of you, I instructed the attorney general to write a regulation that would rein in the proliferation of ghost guns because I was having trouble getting anything passed in the Congress," Biden said.

The rule goes into effect 120 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.

Gun Owners of America vowed that it would immediately fight the rule.

"Just as we opposed the Trump Administration's arbitrary ban on bump stocks, GOA will also sue Biden's ATF to halt the implementation of this rule," Aidan Johnston, the group's director of federal affairs, said in a statement.

The group believes the rule violates the U.S. Constitution and several federal laws.

After Biden announced new restrictions on ghost guns and privately made firearms, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., issued a statement.

"Expanding federal gun regulations only makes it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to own guns. If President Biden wants to crack down on crime, he should begin by enforcing existing laws and prosecuting violent criminals."

'CLOSE THAT LOOPHOLE'

For years, federal officials have been sounding the alarm about an increasing black market for homemade, military-style semi-automatic rifles and handguns. As well as turning up more frequently at crime scenes, ghost guns have been increasingly encountered when federal agents buy guns in undercover operations from gang members and other criminals.

Some states, such as California, have enacted laws in recent years to require serial numbers to be stamped on ghost guns.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who was attending Monday's event at the White House, applauded the move and pointed to a serious uptick in ghost guns being found by police.

Police in Philadelphia have seen nearly a 500% increase in the number of ghost guns recovered in the past two years, Shapiro said. And last week, a police officer there was shot by a ghost gun-wielding 18-year-old, who police said had also shot three others.

"This loophole has caused our nation countless lives," Shapiro said in an interview. "Today is a critically important step to close that loophole."

He said the move is likely to help drive down violence and aid both police and prosecutors in bringing their cases. The rule is also likely to stop many people who shouldn't be purchasing firearms before a gun lands in their hand, he said.

"There are two challenges: One, criminals can easily buy them without going through a background check. And two, they are unserialized and untraceable."

The critical component in building an untraceable gun is what is known as the lower receiver, a part typically made of metal or polymer. An unfinished receiver -- sometimes referred to as an "80-percent receiver" -- can be legally bought online with no serial numbers or other markings on it, no license required.

Police across the country have been reporting spikes in ghost guns being recovered by officers. The New York Police Department, for example, said officers found 131 firearms without serial numbers since January.

A gunman who killed his wife and four others in Northern California in 2017 had been prohibited from owning firearms, but he built his own to skirt the court order before his rampage. In 2019, a teenager used a homemade handgun to fatally shoot two classmates and wound three others at a school in suburban Los Angeles.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael Balsamo, Zeke Miller and Will Weissert of The Associated Press and by Glenn Thrush and Katie Benner of The New York Times.

  photo  President Joe Biden holds pieces of a 9mm pistol as he speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 11, 2022. Biden announced a final version of the administration’s ghost gun rule, which comes with the White House and the Justice Department under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
 
 
  photo  President Joe Biden talks with Mia Tretta, a survivor of the Saugus High School shooting in Santa Clarita, Calif., before she speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 11, 2022. Biden announced a final version of the administration's ghost gun rule, which comes with the White House and the Justice Department under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
 
 
  photo  President Joe Biden listens as Mia Tretta, a survivor of the Saugus High School shooting in Santa Clarita, Calif., speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 11, 2022. Biden announced a final version of the administration's ghost gun rule, which comes with the White House and the Justice Department under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
 
 
  photo  President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Mia Tretta arrive to speak in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 11, 2022, to announce a final version of the administration's ghost gun rule, which comes with the White House and the Justice Department under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
 
 
  photo  President Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 11, 2022, to announce a final version of his administration's ghost gun rule, which comes with the White House and the Justice Department under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
 
 
  photo  President Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 11, 2022, to announce a final version of his administration's ghost gun rule, which comes with the White House and the Justice Department under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
 
 
  photo  A 9mm pistol build kit with a commercial slide and barrel with a polymer frame is displayed during an event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 11, 2022. President Joe Biden announced a final version of its ghost gun rule, which comes with the White House and the Justice Department under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths.. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
 
 

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