Posted on 10/18/2025 4:14:08 AM PDT by Libloather
A group of 30 House Republicans is raising alarms about how the government shutdown is impacting gun owners across the U.S.
Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., led his colleagues in a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Thursday urging its acting director to reclassify certain employees as essential workers, warning that current parameters are leaving many gun owners’ applications for certain items in limbo.
“As a result of this Democrat-led shutdown, ATF, like most federal agencies, is operating at a reduced workforce. And while Democrats continue to fight for benefits for illegal aliens, the constitutional rights of Americans are being infringed as a result,” read the letter, first obtained by Fox News Digital.
“That is because, under federal law, Second Amendment rights cannot be fully exercised without the involvement of the federal government. This clearly is not what the Framers intended, but it is this country’s unfortunate reality.”
The government shutdown is in its 17th day, with Democrats and Republicans still unable to agree on a path forward on federal funding.
It’s led to thousands of government employees being furloughed and a wide array of federal services paused. Shutdowns force federal agencies to triage their output, deciding which workers and services are “essential” and must keep working with limited or no pay, and what to shutter altogether.
Much of the ATF’s non-law enforcement staff was furloughed, and processing of new and renewed civilian federal firearms licenses was stalled, according to the Firearm Industry Trade Association.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
We can live with the delay. Not going to vote for coward rinks though.
“𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦, 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘭𝘢𝘸, 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺’𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺.”
How is the repeal of some of those federal laws coming along?
Tell it to the democrats.
Yes, the pickle of people opting to live in a prison, because it’s safer...
Bet me. Those rights are under constant attack by the federal government.
They could easily streamline the process by rubber stamping all applications. A script-kiddie could probably even automate that in a weekend.
Do not sweat the small stuff that you uni partiers find to try to stir us with Ben.
You should endeavor to save our money on all burdensome and mostly useless government spending paths including this one instead.
Both the illegal and wrong and well that is the way it is things need scrutiny.
Most of us are already loaded if you really need to know.
The feds shutdown their do,not,call list registry due to shutdown
Spiteful b-—turds
Hmmm, private party sales don’t seem to be affected by the government shutdown.
So he is saying we have to get permission from the government to exercise our God given rights. What a tool.
The title is misleading, it’s not gun “ownership” that’s being impacted, it’s gun transfers. The title implies that guns one already own are being put in jeopardy of seizure as a result of the shutdown, which is not what the article is about.
Then again, we have long ago come to expect misleading coverage of gun issues in the gaslight media.
Yet police departments and government agencies can process their purchases of firearms and ammunition.
Please get rid of the ATF. The phrase “shall not be infringed” utterly demands it.
I’d actually like to see this come to fruition: NICS basically shutting down and gun purchases stopping. Bear with me a moment before flaming me.
The Second amendment guarantees that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Up until now, most people have just dealt with waiting a few hours or days for NICS to pass them through. A couple of weekends ago I was waiting for a check that took ~15 minutes while another man was waiting for over 2 hours. People just accept this with the caveat that it does happen. Well if it doesn’t happen, and the transfer can’t take place, this would be grounds for a lawsuit, and that suit, I believe, would have standing to be taken to SCOTUS.
It could be very easily argued that due to the shutdown, it’s very plain to see that government policies are infringing on the plain language of the Second amendment. Since NICS relies on government funding, in the event of a government shutdown, NICS stops operating, and boom! Second amendment infringement. SCOTUS would likely walk a very thin line in the ruling, I believe they would come down on the side that this system cannot not function for any reason if the intent is to not infringe. That would force the ATF to either fix it or abolish it or Congress to force it to be fixed or abolished.
We have to play this game now, but it’s going to be in our favor in the long run. Just look at what happened in Florida recently. After decades of restrictions on open carry, someone finally filed suit and won to have open carry prohibitions struck down in the state. I never thought I’d live to see the day, but here we are; and I believe if NICS breaks down, we could win back that little bit of ground as well.
“Please get rid of the ATF. “
They’re too valuable as agents of repression.
Whole article is gaslighting.
The reality is that leftists remaining in ATF chose to deem this as “non-essential” specifically so that 2A would be impacted.
Easy enough to put out a statement prior to 10/1 saying current licenses will be valid through any shutdown, clear backlog of suppressor approvals, etc., but no; more harmful to leave the enforcers going and not the approvals so they can “get” some people and put others in limbo or risk of their livelihood.
Like puppies the RINOs and their Fox mouthpiece try and pry us loose from MAGA and into a surrender that would guarantee D control and Impeachment Hoax 3/4/x.
No asbestos pajamas are necessary.
B.S..
Government administrative concerns do not trump rights.
Bert Gummer’s application can wait a few more days.
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