JOINT LETTER: GOA, Defense Distributed and JSD Supply Rebuke Biden’s Assault on Homemade Firearms

March 1, 2021
For immediate release

JOINT LETTER: GOA, Defense Distributed and JSD Supply Rebuke Biden’s Assault on Homemade Firearms

Springfield, VA – In a joint letter sent to the Biden Administration, Gun Owners of America (GOA), Defense Distributed (DD) and JSD Supply rebuked President Joe Biden’s efforts to force buyers of unmanufactured non-firearms or non-commercial manufactured firearms to undergo background checks.

The letter begins, “We are collectively writing to you with this letter to advocate on behalf of the millions of noncommercial manufacturers of homemade firearms—law-abiding Americans who make up our grassroots supporters and customers. These people are engaging in lawful activities that are as old as our republic itself.”

In essence, Biden’s effort to regulate these homemade firearms effectively amount to purchasers being forced to be screened by the government before acquiring nonfunctioning pieces of plastic and metal. The letter continues:

Neither 3D printed gun files nor unfinished receiver blanks constitute “firearms” or “handguns” because they are not “firearms.”

Additionally, an unfinished receiver sold as a kit with other unregulated gun parts is not a “combination of parts from which a firearm […] can be assembled” because the unfinished frame must first be manufactured before it can be assembled.

And no amount of additional unregulated parts sold alongside an unregulated unfinished receiver blank can magically transform a non-firearm into a “firearm” or a “handgun.”

Furthermore, Biden’s effort goes against longstanding legal definitions of firearms and previous ATF determinations. The letter concludes:

ATF should not be permitted to go door-to-door rounding up “ghost guns” or regulate any nonfirearm receiver blanks without the passage of any new laws and based only on the authority of ATF to re-classify—on the fly—unregulated items that are popular within the shooting community. Operating arbitrarily, your administration and the ATF should not engage in the partisan and reckless business of making lawful items unlawful, making lawful companies guilty of felonious behavior, or making lawful purchasers at risk of being visited by armed government agents. Certainly such action should not be taken against property that the ATF itself said was lawful to manufacture, sell, and possess.

The joint letter can be viewed in full here.

Aidan Johnston, or another GOA spokesperson, is available for interviews. Gun Owners of America is a grassroots nonprofits dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear arms without compromise. For more information, visit GOA’s Press Center.

Defense Distributed is the first private defense contractor in service of the general public. Since 2012’s Wiki Weapon project, DD has defined the state of the art in small scale, digital, personal gunsmithing technology. For more information, please visit defdist.org.

JSD Supply was founded in a love of guns and hate of paperwork. Since 2013, they’ve helped thousands of people build their own gun from the privacy of their garage. They are the experts in the field of do-it-yourself firearms finishing and customization, and feature the most diverse product lineup of any supplier. For more information, please visit jsdsupply.com.

— GOA —