Source: https://www.scribd.com/doc/133606117/37/Multiple-Rifles-Sales-Report-Proposal94?sh=320cfa0f0f9002dc
Timestamp: 2016-02-13 00:30:49
Document Index: 551779143

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 921', '§\n922', '§ 923', '§ 926', '§ 926', '§ 478', '§ 923', '§ 923', '§ 926', '§ 926', '§ 926', '§\n923']

Multiple Rifles Sales Report Proposal94 for Gun Control Legislation_Congressional Research Service June 9, 2011
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On December 17, 2010, DOJ and ATF published a “60-day emergency notice of information
collection” in the Federal Register,95
in which they requested that the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) review and clear a proposed information collection initiative by January 5, 2011
on an expedited basis under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.96
Under this proposal, ATF
would require federal firearms licensees (FFLs) to report to ATF whenever they make multiple
sales or other dispositions of more than one rifle within five consecutive business days to an
For the statutory definition of a “school zone,” see 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(25). For the prohibition, see 18 U.S.C. §
922(q).
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Review of ATF’s Project Gunrunner, I-2011-001,
November 2010, http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/ATF/e1101.pdf.
This section was coauthored by the report’s author, William J. Krouse, and Vivian S. Chu and Vanessa K. Burrows,
CRS Legislative Attorneys. Questions on case law related to demand letters should be referred to Ms. Chu. Questions
on the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 should be referred to Ms. Burrows.
Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “60-Day Emergency Notice of
Information Collection Under Review: Report of Multiple Sale or Other Disposition of Certain Rifles,” 75 Federal
Register 79021, December 17, 2010.
For further information, see CRS Report R40636, Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA): OMB and Agency
Responsibilities and Burden Estimates, by Curtis W. Copeland and Vanessa K. Burrows.
unlicensed person. Such reporting would be limited to firearms that are (1) semiautomatic, (2)
chambered for ammunition of greater than .22 caliber, and (3) capable of accepting a detachable
magazine. On December 20, 2010, acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson later clarified that the
proposed multiple rifle sales reporting requirement would be (1) limited to FFLs operating in
Southwest border states (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California) and (2) confined initially
to a one-year pilot project.97
On February 4, 2011, OMB informed ATF that it would not grant the emergency approval.98
Nevertheless, the notice’s 60-day comment period ran through February 16, 2011. Following DOJ
and ATF consideration the initial round of comments, a subsequent 30-day comment period was
invoked on April 29, 2010.99
At the conclusion of this comment period, OMB will have another
30 days, until the end of June, to issue a decision on the initiative.
It appears that some of the impetus for the information collection initiative was a
recommendation made by the DOJ OIG in November 2010.100
As described above, in that review
the OIG reported that ATF criminal investigations and firearms trace data indicated that Mexican
drug trafficking organizations had demonstrated a marked preference for long guns (rifles and
shotguns) capable of accepting detachable ammunition feeding devices.101
OIG recommended that ATF work with DOJ to explore options for seeking a multiple long sales
reporting requirement.102
In response to the OIG’s recommendation, however, acting ATF
Director Melson initially suggested that such a requirement could be beyond the ATF’s and the
DOJ’s authority under current law, but that ATF would “explore the full range of options to seek
information regarding multiple sales of long guns.”103
Notwithstanding this concern about its authority, it appears that DOJ and ATF collectively
concluded that there is sufficient authority under current law for ATF to collect reports on
multiple sales of certain long guns from FFLs. While the notice was arguably short on detail,
supporting documentation posted on the OMB website suggested that ATF was proposing the
information collection under its authority to issue “demand letters.”104
Gun Control Act (GCA) in 1968, the ATF and its predecessor agencies at the Department of the
have had the authority to issue “demand letters” to FFLs in order to obtain
information from the records that FFLs are required by law to maintain at their places of
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “Acting Director Announces Demand Letters for Multiple
Sales of Specific Long Guns in Four Border States,” News Release, December 20, 2010.
Mike Lillis, “House Dems Upset with Delay on Gun Proposal Along Border,” The Hill, February 9, 2011, p. 3.
Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, "Agency Information Collection
Activities; Proposed Collection Comments Requested: Report of Multiple Sale or Other Disposition of Certain Rifles,"
76 Federal Register 24058, April 29, 2011.
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Evaluation and Inspections Division, Review of ATF’s
Project Gunrunner, I-2011-001, November 2010.
In a sample demand letter on the OMB website, ATF specified that it would be issuing such a letter under 18 U.S.C.
§ 923(g)(5).
ATF was transferred from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of Justice, effective January 2003.
ATF was established in Treasury in 1972. Prior to that, it was a division within the Internal Revenue Service.
business.106
Such letters have been primarily used to investigate and bring non-compliant FFLs
into line and to expedite the acquisition of trace data.107
ATF’s authority to issue demand letters to collect information under certain circumstances has
been challenged and upheld in the federal courts. In 2000, for example, ATF issued demand
letters to 41 FFLs who were deemed uncooperative because they had failed to comply with trace
request responses in a timely manner. In these demand letters, the ATF required the FFLs to
submit information concerning their firearm purchases and sales for the past three years and on a
monthly basis thereafter until told otherwise.108
held that 18 U.S.C. § 926(a), which prohibits the creation of a national registry of firearms,
firearms owners, and transactions, did not directly limit the defendant’s authority to issue demand
letters and was not violated because the ATF narrowly tailored the request to its tracing needs by
issuing the letter to the 0.1 % of FFLs nationwide.109
In 1999, the ATF sent out another demand letter to approximately 450 FFLs who had 10 or more
crime guns traced to them with a “time-to-crime” of three years or less. The demand letter
required the FFLs to report the acquisition of secondhand firearms, including identification of the
firearm but not the identities of the person from whom the secondhand firearm was acquired or
the person to whom the firearm was transferred.110
The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and
Ninth Circuits generally held that § 926(a) was not violated111
and that the appropriations rider
that prohibits ATF from spending money in connection with consolidating or centralizing records
was also not violated because a demand letter sent to less than 1% of all FFLs for a portion of
record information does not constitute consolidating or centralizing record information.112
Opponents of this initiative argue that (1) ATF does not enjoy sufficient authority to require
multiple rifle sales reports from FFLs; (2) such a reporting requirement would be unprecedented;
and (3) the data collection that would result would essentially constitute an illegal firearms
The original demand letter regulation appears to have been promulgated at the same time the Gun Control Act was
enacted in 1968. See Furnishing Transaction Information, 27 C.F.R. § 478.126, issued 33 Federal Register 18555,
18571, December 14, 1968. When the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act (FOPA) was passed in 1986, Congress made
explicit in statute: “Each licenses shall, when required by letter issued by the [Attorney General], and until notified to
the contrary in writing by the [Attorney General], submit on a form specified by the [Attorney General], for periods and
at the times specified in such letter, all record information required to be kept by this chapter or such lesser record
information as the [Attorney General] may specify.” See 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(5)(A).
When considering FOPA, it seems that Congress made clear that although they would statutorily authorize the ATF
to collect information pursuant to its demand letter authority, such authority “to request tracing information for dealers
can never be used to establish any centralized or regional registration about § 923(g)(5)(A) [in violation of § 926(a)]”
and “Congress had no intent to require all law-abiding gun dealers to report all their firearms transactions” to BATF.
Statement of Senator Orrin Hatch, 131 Cong. Rec. S9129 (July 9, 1985).
See RSM, Inc. v. Buckles, 254 F.3d 61,65-66 (4th
Ibid, p. 68. The court in RSM noted that although FOPA prohibited the creation of a national registry of firearms,
Congress also envisioned some sort of collection of firearms records so long as it was incidental to some other statutory
function specifically delegated to ATF.
See Blaustein & Reich, Inc. v. Buckles, 365 F.3d 281 (4th
Cir. 2004); J&G Sales Ltd., v. Truscott, 473 F.3d 1043
Cir. 2007), cert. denied, 128 S. Ct. 208 (2007).
The Fourth Circuit in Blaustein & Reich noted that § 926(a) has no bearing on the regulation that authorizes the use
of demand letters because that section only prohibits the promulgation of rules and regulations prescribed after 1986,
and the regulation on demand letters dates back to 1968. Furthermore, it stated that § 926(a) has no bearing on §
923(g)(5)(A) because “the former provision pertains only to ‘rule[s]’ and ‘regulation[s]’ and the latter is a statute, not a
rule or regulation” (modification in the original). Blaustein & Reich, 365 F.3d at 288, 290.
Blaustein & Reich, 365 F.3d at 289.
registry. Although this information collection initiative would require FFLs to provide ATF with
additional documentation on firearms transactions involving rifles, which has not previously been
required, it is not entirely unprecedented. On the other hand, an argument could be made that
ATF’s issuance of demand letters and the existing multiple handgun sales reporting requirement
are precedents for multiple rifle sales reports. In the past, as described above, ATF had
administratively required some FFLs to surrender firearms transaction records temporarily on a
much wider scale, when there were indications of noncompliance or illegal firearms trafficking.
Several Members of Congress, however, disagree with this decision and sent a letter to President
Obama voicing strong opposition to the proposed multiple sales report proposal.113
Members maintain that if Congress authorized multiple handgun sales reporting in statute in
1986, then it is incumbent upon ATF to request that Congress provide it with similar statutory
authority for a multiple rifles sales reporting requirement.114
Meanwhile, on February 19, 2011,
the House adopted an amendment to the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (H.R. 1)
that would have prohibited ATF from implementing that requirement. While the House passed
H.R. 1, the Senate rejected this bill on March 9, 2011, for budgetary considerations that went well
beyond concerns about this policy rider. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense and Full-Year
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (H.R. 1473; P.L. 112-10) does not include a similar rider.
Senator Jon Tester introduced a bill (S. 570) that would prohibit DOJ from collecting information
on multiple rifle or shotgun sales.
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