During a Thursday hearing involving oversight of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) roasted ATF Director Steven Dettelbach for referencing Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) as a trustworthy Second Amendment source.
Gaetz was in a line of questioning with Dettelbach concerning the ATF’s universal background check rule, asking about the threshold a law-abiding private citizen has to cross to be considered “engaged in the business” of selling firearms.
Gaetz asked, “How many firearms does someone have to sell to be ‘engaged in the business’ of firearms dealing?”
Dettelbach did not answer the question. Instead, he said, “That matter is being litigated in several courts, so, sticking to what’s already in the public record, the rule itself is 16 pages, skipping lines, …[combined] with over 400 pages of explanation.”
He went on to say, “We received many comments [on the rule]. One of the comments that we received was from, I think, Sen. Cornyn, who expressed the view that there was no numerical threshold.”
Gaetz then interjected, saying, “In the House Judiciary Committee, we probably won’t look to Sen. Cornyn as the oracle of all things gun rights.”
The ATF is once again trying to create felons out of law-abiding Americans.
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) May 23, 2024
ATF’s new rule attacks private sales in an attempt to bar Americans from legally transferring firearms.
It’s so over-broad, Director Dettelbach himself can’t define it!
Congress needs to ABOLISH the… pic.twitter.com/rVB5XaGW7h
On May 16, 2024, Breitbart News reported an effort among some Senate Republicans to block the ATF’s universal background check rule. The article pointed out that 45 GOP senators put forth a resolution in an attempt to block the rule, and one of those senators was Cornyn.
Ironically, the Biden Administration has sought to justify the universal background check rule by pointing to gun control Cornyn helped Democrats pass in 2022. Bureaucrats in President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) claim that the 2022 gun control, i.e., the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, opened the door to the enactment of universal background checks.
RELATED — AWR Hawkins: Universal Background Checks = Gun Registry
ahawkinsAWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a pro-staffer for Pulsar Night Vision, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
