Final rule protects Second Amendment rights while keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals
From the Office of the Attorney General (full rule here, full text from Justice department below)
As one of his first actions as Attorney General, Todd Blanche today finalized a federal regulation and launched a new process allowing eligible individuals who are prohibited from possessing firearms to apply for restoration of their federal firearm rights.
“The Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and the federal government should not permanently deprive Americans of a constitutional right without regard to whether they pose a danger to public safety,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche. “This rule establishes a rigorous, commonsense process that protects the public while giving deserving Americans a real path to restoration.”
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
“President Trump keeps making history – this time by his unprecedented restoration of firearms rights to millions of Americans” said U.S. Pardon Attorney Edward Martin. “Over the past months, we have worked at the direction of Attorney General Todd Blanche to build a program to give a pathway for restoration for the 30 million Americans who have lost their Second Amendment rights. We are proud to serve and defend our great Second Amendment.”
For more than three decades, the statutory process Congress created under 18 U.S.C. § 925(c) was effectively unavailable to most individuals seeking relief from federal firearms disabilities. The final rule restores a functioning process for the individualized consideration Congress authorized and advances President Trump’s directive to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans.
Under the final rule, restoration of firearm rights is neither automatic nor guaranteed. Each applicant must establish to the Attorney General’s satisfaction that the circumstances giving rise to the prohibition, together with the applicant’s record, reputation, and subsequent conduct, demonstrate that the applicant is not likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety and that granting relief would not be contrary to the public interest. The Department will consider the facts and circumstances of each application, while maintaining strong presumptions against relief for individuals whose crimes, conduct, or status demonstrate heightened risks to public safety. Absent extraordinary circumstances, violent felons, registered sex offenders, illegal aliens, and other individuals who present an ongoing danger will remain presumptively ineligible for relief. Any relief granted under the rule removes only applicable federal firearms disabilities and does not override independent restrictions imposed by state law.
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
The final rule, as submitted to the Office of the Federal Register, is available here. This rule will take effect thirty days after publication in the Federal Register. Individuals seeking restoration of their federal firearm rights may visit the Justice Department’s Federal Firearm Rights Restoration Program website at www.justice.gov/ffrr for eligibility information, application instructions, and access to the Department’s application process.
A right delayed is a right denied
While the details must be gleaned from text, linked twice for your convenience, Attorney General Blanche is putting in place a pathway long overdue for rights restoration. In theory, you could apply to get your firearms rights back. Some occasionally did. But in practice that pathway was a nightmare, on purpose, for a person to drown within until they gave up. This is a very common tactic with gun control when they cannot outright deny something, simply make the process too arduous.
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
Absurdly short operating hours with in person application requirements for no reason. Acquiring signatures of government officials who you cannot get a meeting with or who are not required as part of their duties to ever address your application. All tactics government uses when they do not want to do something for you but cannot outright deny you. Occasionally they’ll go so far as to not process your paperwork at all despite it implicitly being within their duty as a government employee, and then might be held accountable a little after a long legal process. e.g. Kim Davis is still trying to dodge the now $560,000 she owes for failing to process marriage licenses back in 2015, expect any attempt to hold an official accountable for gun license shenanigans to be this hard or harder.
The new rule seeks make the process move forward, make more sense, be a simple and followable format to submit and track the appeal. It doesn’t assure restoration but it puts safe guards and responsibilities in place on the government for the process to move to completion. This should be a requirement of any government mandated process, to be supported with a robust and efficient system to complete it.
Reactions
The anti-gun crowd is big mad. Some tough-on-crime short-on-thoughts folks are too, but most of the ire is coming from the camps who gravitate towards Giffords and Brady like mindsets. Groups like the ACLU haven’t weighed in as far as I can find, despite this ostensibly being right up their alley. The ACLU has been more of a fair weather friend on the 2nd Amendment.
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
“MAKING IT EASIER FOR FELONS TO GET GUNS.” Seems to be the tired refrain. It is so convenient that all felonies are suddenly created equal when firearms rights are involved, but there is nuance if it is free speech, voting, or search and seizure.
Final Rules
Many of the final rules ATF posted earlier this year are reaching their maturation and end of comment period. The DoJ/ATF are moving boldly in very sensible directions in many cases. Stay tuned.
Read the full article here
