Texas Senator Ted Cruz has joined other Republican lawmakers in Washington D.C. in issuing a resolution opposing the Biden administration’s latest plan to regulate firearms.
In April, the administration announced its plan to target “ghost guns,” firearms that lack serial numbers. Some of these guns are bought in kits online, arriving packaged in separate parts to be assembled. The Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Agency (ATF) will require that gun kit makers place serial numbers on all parts of a firearm as part of the new measure set to go into effect on August 24.
However, it is another part of the law that Senator Cruz is challenging. The new law requires gun stores to record all sales of firearms and store them indefinitely instead of the current 20-year minimum. When a gun store goes out of business, its records will be passed to the ATF.
The intended aim is for law enforcement to be able to use the records held by the ATF to help identify suspects in shootings and violent crimes. Opponents claim that storing records in a central location by the ATF will create a de facto national gun registry.
The measure will also broaden the definition of “firearm” to include certain gun parts and firearm building kits. This means anyone wanting to purchase a part of a firearm would need to go through all the federal requirements for buying a fully functional firearm.
Senator Cruz and twenty-one other Republican senators signed onto the resolution that took exception to these parts of the new law.
“For the past two years, we’ve seen crime rates skyrocket all across the country, aided by Democrats’ soft-on crime policies and left-wing district attorneys operating like progressive activists instead of law enforcement officers,” said Cruz in a press release. “Democrats would love nothing more than to shift the blame and stoke anti-gun sentiment, and create a permanent national gun registry in the process.”
“By introducing this resolution, we’re pushing back — we want to stop the Biden administration from issuing the final rule expanding the definition of firearms and instituting a national gun registry, we want to stop the false narrative that links the rise in crime to ‘ghost guns’ and firearms, and we want to protect law-abiding citizens who are exercising their Second Amendment rights,” said Cruz.
Cruz and his fellow Republican senators submitted the resolution to prevent the Biden administration from expanding the definition of what constitutes a firearm under the Congressional Review Act. The act allows Congress to overturn Biden’s new rule, but the resolution must pass both chambers of Congress and not receive a presidential veto. Cruz faces an uphill battle as Democrats have been pushing for tighter gun control, and they currently make up the majority of the Senate and the House.