WASHINGTON ― A proposed regulation announced Thursday by the Biden administration would require thousands of gun sellers to register with the federal government and conduct background checks of their customers.
A small part of the bipartisan gun law Congress passed last year broadened the definition of a “gun dealer” as a way of reducing the number of sales that don’t go through the background check system.
President Joe Biden ordered the Justice Department earlier this year to write the regulation so the government could get “as close as we can to universal background checks without new legislation.”
Only those who are “engaged in the business” of firearms have been required to register as federal firearms licensees, while people who don’t regularly sell guns, such as hobbyists, have been exempt.
The lack of background checks for so-called “private” transactions has been called the “gun show loophole,” though in recent years there have probably more such…