Here’s why your comments to ATF make a difference!
Comments from Gun Owners Have Already Fueled Several Pro–gun Victories
People ask GOA all the time: “Why should I bother commenting to an administrative agency? The anti-gun tyrants at the ATF clearly don’t respect our rights, so it’s a waste of time.”
That couldn’t be further from the truth…
Your feedback and grassroots activism can make a MASSIVE difference – and it can even force the ATF to alter their plans for gun control.
For example, the ATF received over 90,000 comments opposing Obama’s green tip ammo ban, forcing them to back down and abandon plans to ban that specific ammunition.
More recently, GOA’s campaign to oppose Biden’s regulation of homemade firearms led to more than 60,000 comments and was impactful enough that the ATF even acknowledged the comments from our members.
In response, they made several concessions in the final rule including:
- You do not have to treat magazines, barrels, triggers, and other gun parts like a firearm—including passing a background check and completing registration paperwork during a commercial sale.
- You don’t have to register your guns’ parts simply because you Cerakote or paint your firearm.
- You also have greater protections when having a gun dealer check out or modify your privately made firearm (the requirement to serialize only applies when a dealer takes that gun into his inventory overnight).
Without pushback from GOA’s grassroots members, those concessions would not exist, and the ATF’s original, more draconian version of the rule would be the law of the land!
You might be thinking, “Even if the ATF does make some concessions, tyranny is still tyranny – and their gun control rules are still unconstitutional infringement on my rights by unelected government bureaucrats.”
You would be correct, which is why we’re also currently fighting Biden’s restrictions on homemade gun making kits in the Eighth Circuit Court.
In that case, the comments we generated are an important part of our argument that the ATF overstepped its lawful authority.
In the event that we take the ATF to court over the Universal Registration Checks rule, the input from gun owners during the Notice and Comment period will similarly strengthen our argument.
All of that just goes to show how important your input is – and why it’s so critical for YOU to weigh in on the ATF’s latest tyrannical gun control proposal.
The ATF would love nothing more than to see gun owners like you adopt the mentality that your input doesn’t matter.
These anti-gun zealots would be delighted to see you give up hope, stop speaking out, and become a bystander as they completely gut the Second Amendment.
The fewer politically active gun owners there are in America, the easier it is for them to erode your rights.
They want a passive populace that doesn’t speak out against their infringements!
In fact, the worst thing you can do as someone who’s pro-gun is to take a backseat to events like this because it’s a “waste of time.”
If gun owners are persuaded that there’s no use fighting for their rights within the system and they must resort to non-compliance, it gives the government a free hand to legislate your rights away…
…and they’ll simply play the waiting game to catch up with those practicing non-compliance.
It’s estimated that over 100 MILLION Americans own a firearm.
When even a small percentage of that total stand together in defense of our rights, we form a critical block of voters that not even the most virulent anti-gunners can ignore.
To put it simply: The more comments we generate now, the better our chances of defeating the ATF’s tyranny – either by forcing them to withdraw the rule or by getting it struck down in court.