WASHINGTON–U.S Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Monday spoke on the U.S. Senate floor to highlight the importance of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) proposed new rule to specify the definition of “engaged in the business” as a dealer in firearms. Murphy’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) clarified the definition of who is “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms as a person doing so with the intent to “predominately earn a profit.” The proposed rule amends the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) regulations to conform with the BSCA, clarifying who must register as a federally licensed firearms dealer and conduct background checks on gun sales.

“Twenty-two percent of gun owners report that they obtained their weapon without a background check. And an analysis of gun sale ads from 2018 to 2020 revealed that the majority of those ads were being placed by people like Mr. Braziel [the unlicensed firearms dealer who sold a gun to the Midland-Odessa shooter], unlicensed sellers not required to do background checks,” said Murphy. “And so what that means is that there are tens of thousands of guns, perhaps more, in this country every single year being not just sold without background checks, but being sold to individuals who are prohibited from buying those weapons. Because that's exactly where those people go. People like Seth Ator, the shooter in Midland-Odessa. They know that this black market exists, they know that there are people on Armslist.com who will willingly sell them weapons without a background check so when they get stopped from buying a gun at a gun store, they go and buy one online.”

On the BSCA’s provision to clarify the definition of a federally licensed firearms dealer, Murphy said: “What we did was to basically clarify that it doesn't need to be your full time job, but so long as you are selling guns, predominately for a profit, you have to get licensed, you have to perform background checks. The Biden administration two weeks ago released a draft rule implementing that change that we voted for on a bipartisan basis in the Senate, and in an analysis of the statutory change that we voted for and the rule that the Biden administration proposed suggests that up to 328,000 additional dealers could be required to perform background checks. Now, even if those dealers are only conducting a handful of sales a year, and most of these are probably conducting dozens of sales a year either at gun shows or online at sites like Armslist.com, we are talking about millions of guns, millions of guns that right now are being sold outside the background check system that will now be sold inside the background check system.”

Murphy also laid out how the BSCA is saving lives: “Since the passage of the BSCA, almost 1,000 transactions of weapons to young buyers, those under 21, have been denied. We put in place an enhanced background check for 18, 19, and 20-year-olds when they're buying rifles, assault weapons, and that additional background check has already identified a thousand people all across the country, young people who would have gotten a weapon if not for the enhanced background check, but we found out that they actually did have a disqualifying record, a serious mental illness or an undiscovered criminal conviction and they didn't get the weapon.”

“Second, more than 100 defendants all across the country have been charged with new BSCA violations of gun trafficking. Gun trafficking wasn't a federal crime until we passed that law. Now it is, and over 100 cases have been brought against defendants for violations of trafficking firearms. Prosecutions against unlicensed dealers, even before the Biden administration’s announcement of the rule were up by 52 percent. Lastly, the administration has made 49 awards for red flag incentive grants, $231 million, and those funds have helped states implement existing red flag laws, but we stood here on the Senate floor and said we bet you that states are going to pass new red flag laws or stronger red flag laws in part because of the money they’re getting from the federal government. That’s exactly what happened. Just in the last year, Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota to name three states have passed new red flag laws or strengthened red flag laws and will now have additional resources to get the job done,” Murphy added.

Murphy concluded: “The Biden administration’s rule implementing the change in the definition of a gun dealer is going to mean that millions of gun sales that two years ago were made without a background check are now done with a background check. That means a lot fewer dangerous people get weapons in this country. That’s good news for everybody.”

A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:

Mr. Murphy: “Mr. President, in May of 2019, Leila Hernandez had her quinceañera. She was in a bedazzled green gown, she looked absolutely magnificent. She was having a great sophomore year in high school. She was playing basketball, number 23. She had a lot of friends. One friend said, ‘Leila was just one of those people full of joy and happiness. She knew how to make somebody's bad day turn into a good day.’

“In September of that year, 2019, Leila went to a car dealership in the Midland-Odessa area of Texas. Her 18-year-old brother Nathan was buying a truck, and this was a big deal for this family. And so I don't know if it was the whole family, but her mom was there, Nathan was there, she was there, her 9-year-old brother was there. And I believe as they were emerging from the dealership, they heard gunshots. Her mother took the younger brother, the 9-year-old, and they ducked underneath a car. Nathan, 18, all he could do was just wrap his hands around Leila. But the shooting was relentless. Nathan was hit in the arm but Leila was hit closer to the neck. Leila's last words in the embrace of her brother were ‘Help me. Help me.’

“She was one of seven who died in the Midland-Odessa mass shooting. Thirty two people were shot. A lot of them, like Nathan, survived, many with injuries that will impact them for the rest of their life, but Leila Hernandez just a few months from her quinceañera died that day.

“The young man who shot her was ineligible to own a weapon. He had serious mental illness, serious enough that he was on the list of individuals who’s prohibited from buying a weapon. He had tried to buy a weapon, but he had been denied when he tried to do it at a licensed gun dealer. He is one of millions of Americans who have been stopped from buying a gun because they're a felon or they are seriously mentally ill.

“But this young man was still able, rather easily, to get a weapon. Why is that? Well, it's because many of our weapons in this country are sold without background checks. What happened in this case? How did this young man with a serious history of mental illness get his hands on a powerful weapon that allowed him to kill Leila and six others?

“Well, the story runs through a man named Marcus Braziel. Marcus Braziel was a gun dealer. No doubt he was a gun dealer. He might not have had a brick and mortar store, but Mr. Braziel was regularly selling guns. In a three-year period of time, he bought 90 some odd guns, resold 70 of them. In the court papers that were part of his arrest and conviction, he admitted that he routinely bought firearm firing mechanisms, termed lower receivers, used milling equipment to build them into full-fledged guns and sold the completed weapons, each one for a profit of $100 to $200. He listed his firearms on Armslist.com and then he conducted the sales in a parking lot of a local sporting goods store or sometimes out of his garage.

“He was a gun dealer, but he never performed background checks because he didn't get licensed. And when he advertised a weapon online, Seth Ator, prohibited from buying a gun in a bricks and mortar store, answered the ad, bought the weapon, and used it to kill Leila Hernandez and shoot 32 other people. This, unfortunately, is not the exception. This is in America the rule today.

“Twenty-two percent of gun owners report that they obtained their weapon without a background check. And an analysis of gun sale ads from 2018 to 2020 revealed that the majority of those ads were being placed by people like Mr. Braziel, unlicensed sellers not required to do background checks.

“And so what that means is that there are tens of thousands of guns, perhaps more, in this country every single year being not just sold without background checks, but being sold to individuals who are prohibited from buying those weapons. Because that's exactly where those people go. People like Seth Ator, the shooter in Midland-Odessa. They know that this black market exists, they know that there are people on Armslist.com who will willingly sell them weapons without a background check so when they get stopped from buying a gun at a gun store, they go and buy one online. That's the bad news.

“The good news, Mr. President, is that Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and the House recognized this problem. And as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act last year, we updated the definition of a gun dealer to make it crystal clear that people like Mr. Braziel need to get a license and they need conduct background checks.

“What we did was to basically clarify that it doesn't need to be your full time job, but so long as you are selling guns, predominately for a profit, you have to get licensed, you have to perform background checks.

“The Biden administration two weeks ago released a draft rule implementing that change that we voted for on a bipartisan basis in the Senate, and in an analysis of the statutory change that we voted for and the rule that the Biden administration proposed suggests that up to 328,000 additional dealers could be required to perform background checks.

“Now, even if those dealers are only conducting a handful of sales a year, and most of these are probably conducting dozens of sales a year either at gun shows or online at sites like Armslist.com, we are talking about millions of guns, millions of guns that right now are being sold outside the background check system that will now be sold inside the background check system.

“And that is a big deal. Because that shooter in Midland, he's not the exception. Like I said, unfortunately, he's the rule. And so by having so many more guns go through the background check system and really closing off the ways that felons, criminals, people with serious mental health illness can buy guns, you are saving lives. Maybe Leila Hernandez would be alive today. She probably would be if this rule had been in place, and Mr. Braziel had looked at that definition and come to the conclusion that he needed to get licensed.

“Admittedly, today the definition is a little fuzzy, and without a rule making it clear what constitutes being a dealer and what does not, it’s even harder for individuals out there to decide whether they need to be licensed or not.

“Mr. Braziel’s case was a pretty clear one. He obviously should have known that he was a gun dealer, and that's why he was prosecuted and put in jail for the actions that led up to the murder of Leila Hernandez. But many other Americans may not know that they need to be licensed.  Now with this rule that the Biden administration has put forward, they will know and they will get licensed.

“And so I hope that my colleagues will learn about this rule, that my Republican colleagues will understand how far it goes and how far it does not go. This does not mean that an individual who's just selling a gun to a family member is going to have to get licensed. That individual is not a dealer. It doesn't mean that someone who is just liquidating their collection of firearms has to be licensed, that person is not a gun dealer. And the rule makes it very clear who is a dealer based upon their desire to earn a profit, based upon whether they have the trappings of a business, based upon the places that they are selling weapons where they are more likely to be strangers where they would need a background check to understand if they are selling to a responsible individual. Those people have to be licensed, but there are lots of people who are selling one or two or three guns a year who likely don't have to be licensed under this rule.

“And so I hope my colleagues will do their own research, not just listen to the spin of advocacy groups. Because I think if you do your own research, you will find out this is exactly what Americans want us to be doing. They want us to be making sure that when there are commercial transaction of weapons, there's a background check. And by the way, the background check takes five minutes. When it doesn't take five minutes, that generally is for a reason that an individual likely has a more complicated mental health or criminal history that has to be unwound.

“So I'm really excited for the Biden administration's very appropriate steps to implement this provision of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and I will just finally note that it is the latest in a series of announcements making clear that the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act has had a substantial and important impact.

“Since the passage of the BSCA, almost 1,000 transactions of weapons to young buyers, those under 21, have been denied. We put in place an enhanced background check for 18, 19, and 20-year-olds when they're buying rifles, assault weapons, and that additional background check has already identified a thousand people all across the country, young people who would have gotten a weapon if not for the enhances background check, but we found out that they actually did have a disqualifying record, a serious mental illness or an undiscovered criminal conviction and they didn't get the weapon. That's really good news.

“Second, more than 100 defendants all across the country have been charged with new BSCA violations of gun trafficking. Gun trafficking wasn't a federal crime until we passed that law. Now it is, and over 100 cases have been brought against defendants for violations of trafficking firearms. Prosecutions against unlicensed dealers, even before the Biden administration’s announcement of the rule were up by 52 percent.

“Lastly, the administration has made 49 awards for red flag incentive grants, $231 million, and those funds have helped states implement existing red flag laws, but we stood here on the Senate floor and said we bet you that states are going to pass new red flag laws or stronger red flag laws in part because of the money they’re getting from the federal government. That’s exactly what happened. Just in the last year, Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota to name three states have passed new red flag laws or strengthened new red flag laws and will now have additional resources to get the job done.

“The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act doesn't do everything we need to do. It's not even close. We need to have universal background checks. We need to get these assault weapons off the streets. But we did show that Republicans and Democrats can step up and make meaningful changes in the law to protect people from gun violence.

“The Biden administration’s rule implementing the change in the definition of a gun dealer is going to mean that millions of gun sales that two years ago were made without a background check are now done with a background check. That means a lot fewer dangerous people get weapons in this country. That’s good news for everybody.

“I yield the floor.”

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