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Biden administration announces plans to expand background checks to close “gun show loophole”
The Biden administration announced Thursday final plans to expand requirements to perform background checks for those who buy firearms at gun shows or online, aiming to effectively close what gun control advocates have long referred to as the “gun show loophole.”
The new federal rules will not create new law but will expand the definition of licensed firearms dealers. This move will also sharpen existing enforcement measures to ensure that the background screenings — which have not traditionally been necessary at certain gun sale locations — are carried out in more circumstances.
The Justice Department estimates there are around 23,000 unlicensed firearms dealers who will now be required to complete background checks when selling guns, although senior administration officials said that predictions about the unlicensed gun market are imprecise.
The expanded background requirements emerged from Congress’ passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022 and will go into effect 30 days after the rule is published in the federal registry this week.
Implementation of the 2022 law focused on the Justice Department’s provision of public clarification about who qualifies as a firearms dealer. The approximate 80,000 licensed firearms dealers in the United States are already required to conduct a background check on buyers while individuals who sell guns online or at gun shows are at times not required to obtain a federal license or perform background checks.
This latest federal action specifically stipulates that any individual who repeatedly sells weapons to “predominantly earn a profit” must now obtain a gun dealer license and start conducting background checks on buyers. Purchasing online ads, record keeping, and operating credit card systems are some indicators that an unlicensed seller would now need to be licensed as a gun dealer, the officials said.
While President Joe Biden supports background checks for all gun sales and transfers, Thursday’s announcement does not require “universal” background checks. Instead, officials said the move expands the definition of a firearm dealer, which as a result, will expand requirements.
There are several carveouts for when gun transfers will not require a background check, including private transfers among family members and the liquidation of a personal collection without restocking.
In making the announcement, Vice President Kamala Harris noted next week is the 25th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting, and the weapons in that massacre were acquired through the gun-show loophole.
Anticipating political pushback, the vice president defended the move. “We know how to prevent these tragedies and it’s a false choice to suggest you are either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away,” Harris said. “I’m in favor of the Second Amendment and I am in favor of reasonable gun safety laws.”
Like other firearms-related federal actions in recent years, challenges to these increased background checks are expected. Because of this, administration officials said the Justice Department hewed closely to the definitions assigned by Congress in the original law. Justice Department officials said they expect the law will hold up to legal scrutiny in the courts.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Thursday that the regulation is a “historic step” that will “save lives,” pointing to federal data that says illegally or black-market firearms are increasingly being found at shooting scenes. The final rule — which followed a public input period that saw over 300,000 comments — will not affect firearms dealers who already have licenses to sell guns, official said, but will bring unlawful dealers into compliance with federal law.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
