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Gun Lobby Lies to Look Out For at Today’s House Judiciary Hearing With ATF Director Steve Dettelbach

4.26.2023

Today, ATF Director Steve Dettelbach will testify before the House Judiciary Committee during an oversight hearing for the agency. 

During the hearing and beyond, do not hesitate to reach out to speak with an Everytown expert about the crucial role that the ATF plays in keeping communities safe. 

We’ve seen in the past that right-wing members of Congress will repeat attacks from the gun lobby, pushing dangerous legislation to defund and abolish the ATF entirely, or voting to make it easier for dangerous individuals to get their hands on dangerous weapons equipped with arm braces, like the one used last month by the Nashville shooter. Here’s the truth about the ATF’s work and what might come up today: 

Gun Lobby SpinThe Truth
“The Arm Brace Rule turns Americans into felons” Nothing in the Final Rule criminalizes arm braces themselves—or those who make, sell, and purchase them. It just treats firearms equipped with arm braces like the short-barreled rifles they are, subject to all the same existing statutory and regulatory requirements to purchase and possess them.
“Arm braces pose little danger to the public” Guns equipped with arm braces have been used in mass shooting after mass shooting: at Club Q in Colorado Springs in November 2022, in a Boulder grocery store in 2021, outside a bar in Dayton in 2019, and at an elementary school in Nashville less than a month ago. Mass shooters are using these firearms because they are more powerful and hold more ammunition than traditional handguns, and arm braces allow them to be shot from the shoulder, providing more accuracy — all in a compact, easy to conceal, form unlike full-length rifles. 
“The Ghost Gun Rule violates the Second Amendment”ATF implements and enforces the laws that Congress has passed to keep dangerous firearms out of dangerous hands and off our streets—including ghost guns. The Ghost Gun Rule is a lawful and constitutional exercise of the powers Congress gave to ATF to respond to technological developments intended to flout existing laws and regulations.
“ATF is creating a back-door gun registry”These are baseless attacks on a critical and commonsense tool that helps law enforcement solve crimes and hold criminals accountable. The law has long required FFLs to keep records of their sales so law enforcement can trace firearms recovered at crime scenes. When FFLs go out of business, these records are just as important to law enforcement to help solve gun crimes.
“ATF inspections are being weaponized”
FFL inspections help protect the public from the criminal use of firearms and keep communities safe from gun sellers that prioritize profits over public safety. In fact, many of the gun dealers whose licenses have been revoked were not regularly conducting background checks, openly facilitating straw purchases, or worse.
“The President’s Executive Order is making an end-run around Congress”Congress did its job to move us closer to universal background checks when it passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and revised the definition of “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms. This definition covers more firearms dealers so that more unlicensed sellers will be required to become licensed and conduct background checks. President Biden has directed his Administration to take the next step and clarify what this revised definition means to move us closer to closing the background check loophole.
“Gun safety groups overstate child gun deaths” According to CDC data, in 2021, the leading cause of death for 1- to 17-year-old children was firearms. Firearm deaths accounted for 2,571 deaths, compared to 2,561 motor vehicle accident-related deaths.

Today’s hearing is a part of a concerted attack by gun extremists on the ATF, whose mission is to protect the public from violent crime, including gun crime. In March, subcommittees of the House Oversight & Accountability Committee and House Judiciary Committee held a hearing attacking the ATF. At the hearing, Everytown’s Federal Legal Director, Rob Wilcox, pushed back on the lies from gun-lobby-backed lawmakers and testified to the crucial role that the ATF, in partnership with state and local law enforcement agencies, plays in keeping communities safe and combating gun violence. Republican gun extremists in Congress have already introduced legislation this session to abolish the ATF in its entirety and are on the record saying that if they cannot eliminate the ATF, they are “going to try defunding” it.