Gun Control Debate The NRA Gets Its Day In Court — and It Loses Unanimously
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The National Rifle Association (NRA) has failed in an attempt to block a new gun regulation introduced by President Obama in July 2011, which will require gun dealers in border states to report multiple sales of semi-automatic weapons. In a unanimous ruling on Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the claim by the NRA that the requirement was nothing more than an underhanded attempt to introduce a register of gun sales, which the NRA is vehemently opposed to.
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said at the time that the organization viewed the rule "as a blatant attempt by the Obama administration to pursue their gun-control agenda through backdoor rule making, and the N.R.A. will fight them every step of the way. There are three branches of government and separation of powers, and we believe they do not have the authority to do this." However, on Friday the three federal judges all rejected this claim and agreed that the Obama administration should be allowed to continue with implementation of the new rule.
Furthermore, the judges specifically rejected the NRA's argument that the rule would amount to the creation of a gun registry, saying that it "does not come close to creating a 'national firearms registry'" because it only applies to four states and only on a very limited basis. Under the rule, if there were no investigative leads arising from the information passed on to it after two years, the ATF would then delete it. Holders of federal firearms licences are already required to report multiple sales of handguns.
