WASHINGTON ( Associated Press) – President Joe Biden is nominating an Obama-era US attorney to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as his administration unveils its formal rule to rein in ghost guns , privately made firearms without serial numbers. Crime scenes are on the rise, six people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.
People said Biden will announce Monday to the White House the nomination of Steve Detelbach, who served as the US attorney in Ohio from 2009 to 2016. They were not authorized to discuss the nomination publicly and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The administration will also release the final version of its ghost gun rule, which comes as the White House and Justice Department are under increasing pressure to crack down on gun deaths and violent crime in the US.
Detelbach’s confirmation is likely to be an uphill battle for the Biden administration. After months of stalling the nomination due to opposition from Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate, Biden had to withdraw the nomination of his first ATF candidate, gun-control advocate David Chipman.
Both Republican and Democratic administrations have failed to get nominees to the ATF position through a politically difficult process since the director position was confirmed in 2006. Since then, only one nominee, former US Attorney B. Todd Jones, has been confirmed. Jones made it through the Senate in 2013 but only after six months of struggle. Jones was acting director when President Barack Obama nominated him in January 2013.
The plans for the Biden administration were first reported by Politico.
For almost a year now, the ghost gun rule has been making its way through the federal appropriation process. Gun safety groups and Democrats in Congress have been pushing the Justice Department to end the rule for months. It will likely face heavy resistance from gun groups and litigation in the coming weeks.
On Sunday, the Senate’s top Democrat, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, urged the administration to move swiftly.
“It’s high time for exorcism to start before the spread peaks, and before more people get hurt — or worse,” Schumer said in a statement. “My message is one simple: no more waiting on these proposed federal regulations.” Ghost Guns are “too easy to make, too hard to trace and too dangerous to ignore.”
Justice Department figures show that about 24,000 ghost guns were recovered by law enforcement at crime sites and reported to the government from 2016 to 2020. It is difficult to say how many people are roaming the streets, as in many cases police departments do not. Don’t approach the government about guns because they can’t be traced.
This rule is expected to change the current definition of a firearm under federal law to include unfinished parts, such as the frame of a handgun or the receiver of a long gun.
In its proposed rule issued last May, the ATF said it would also require manufacturers and dealers who sell ghost gun parts to be licensed by the federal government and that federally licensed firearms dealers be allowed any non-serialized guns. Requires a serial number to be added. Sell
The rule would also require firearms dealers to conduct background checks before selling ghost gun kits that contain the parts needed to assemble a firearm.
For years, federal officials have been sounding the alarm about a growing black market for homemade, military-style semi-automatic rifles and handguns. As well as turning up more frequently at crime scenes, ghost guns have increasingly surfaced when federal agents purchase guns from gang members and other criminals in undercover operations.
Some states, such as California, have enacted laws in recent years to require serial numbers to be stamped on ghost guns.
The key component in manufacturing an unreliable gun is what is known as a lower receiver, which is usually made of metal or polymer. An unfinished receiver—sometimes referred to as an “80-cent receiver”—can be purchased legally online with no serial number or other markings, no license required.
Police across the country are reporting spikes in ghost guns being confiscated by officers. For example, the New York Police Department said officers had found 131 unsorted firearms since January.
A gunman who killed his wife and four others in northern California in 2017 was banned from possessing firearms, but built himself up to defy a court order before his getaway. And in 2019, a teen used a household handgun to fatally shoot two classmates and injure three others at a school in suburban Los Angeles.
