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Mr. BOREN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer this bipartisan amendment with Congressman Rehberg of Montana, my colleague and a fellow member of the House Second Amendment Task Force.
I am proud to report that two important groups have endorsed this amendment, the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Our amendment would prohibit the ATF from using any funds in this act to collect information from federally licensed firearms retailers about multiple rifle sales.
Last December, ATF published an emergency request in the Federal Register. It asked the Office of Management and Budget for the power to collect information from firearms retailers on all sales of two or more semi-automatic rifles within five consecutive business days. This would include many of today's most popular rifles used by millions of Americans for self-defense, hunting, and other lawful purposes.
ATF officials have said this information collection would apply only to licensed firearms retailers in certain States--Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. However, ATF's request published in the Federal Register does not mention a geographic limitation. This means we have to take the ATF at its word. I have heard numerous concerns about this ATF request from fellow Oklahomans, including sportsmen, gun owners, and responsible firearms retailers alike.
Mr. Chairman, I strongly oppose granting ATF this information-collecting authority for three reasons: first, it would subject responsible firearms sellers who are often small business owners to burdensome reporting requirements. Second, ATF would catalog records on Americans who purchase rifles, thereby compromising their privacy. And, finally, ATF lacks legal authority to collect this information. The Gun Control Act of 1968 requires Federal firearms dealers to report multiple sales of handguns.
What I'd like to do at this time is yield to my colleague and friend from Montana (Mr. Rehberg) for any comments he might have.
Mr. REHBERG. Thank you, Mr. Boren. And I thank the chairman for allowing this opportunity.
It's one of those situations where you'd like to believe the administration is not trying to creep into an area that is not necessarily something they would try and slip by anyone. But when you talk about gun control, we get very serious about the Constitution and the creeping of various rules and regulations in areas that Congress has specifically stayed out of, didn't want us to be involved in. And so there is always that lingering thought in the back of your mind like, what's going on here?
Now I don't tend to believe that I would be a scary individual, but if I were living in one of those four States, I would be in this category of having purchased two long rifles because I happened to buy a hunting rifle for myself and my son, who was of age. For Christmas I went out and bought two, and it throws me into that category. I would like to think I'm not considered a gun runner for a Mexican cartel or something like that, but that's the effect of a regulation like this. And so I hope that we will seriously consider this not necessary.
We took the action that created regulation on handguns, we understand that. But when it comes to a long rifle--we're talking hunting rifles, we're talking about other types of rifles that are out there--this doesn't really make sense. So I really thank Mr. Boren for taking the lead on this amendment. It's really important to those of us who are active firearm users.
Mr. BOREN. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Oklahoma has 1 1/4 minutes.
Mr. BOREN. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
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