S. 570 - No Tracking Of Multiple Long Gun Purchases

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) is serious about getting the gun owner's vote when he comes up for re-election in 2012. In February, he introduced S. 381, the Collectible Firearms Protection Act, which would amend the Arms Export Control Act so as to allow the nearly one million Garands and M-1 carbines in Korea to be imported into the U.S.

On Monday, Tester introduced S. 570 which would ban the Department of Justice from tracking or cataloguing the purchases of multiple rifles or shotguns. The bill would do this by prohibiting the use of any Federal funds to require the reporting of such information. Rather than just do it by budget amendments annually, this bill puts a permanent fix in place to stop ATF's over-reaching with their emergency reporting requirements.

A BILL
To prohibit the Department of Justice from tracking and
cataloguing the purchases of multiple rifles and shotguns.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. PROHIBITION OF TRACKING OR CATALOGUING FIREARMS PURCHASES.
For fiscal year 2011 and each fiscal year thereafter, no Federal funds may be used to require a person licensed under section 923 of title 18, United States Code, to report information to the Department of Justice regarding the sale of multiple rifles or shotguns to the same person.

This bill has bipartisan support with 11 other Senators as co-sponsors.

Sen Barrasso, John [WY] - 3/14/2011
Sen Baucus, Max [MT] - 3/14/2011
Sen Begich, Mark [AK] - 3/14/2011
Sen Burr, Richard [NC] - 3/14/2011
Sen Chambliss, Saxby [GA] - 3/14/2011
Sen Coburn, Tom [OK] - 3/14/2011
Sen Ensign, John [NV] - 3/14/2011
Sen Enzi, Michael B. [WY] - 3/15/2011
Sen Inhofe, James M. [OK] - 3/14/2011
Sen Paul, Rand [KY] - 3/14/2011
Sen Vitter, David [LA] - 3/15/2011

Tester's press release had this to say about the bill and ATF's efforts to obtain emergency approval for their multiple-sales reporting requirement for certain long guns.

Tester’s bipartisan legislation follows his call for the Administration to formally reject a request by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) to use emergency rulemaking authority to track the purchases of multiple rifles and shotguns by law-abiding Americans.

ATF requested the new rules to help combat violence on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Tester rejected that reasoning, pointing to a need to “enforce the laws already on the books instead of making up new rules.”

“Any discussion dealing with Americans’ basic rights should be debated out in the open—not behind closed doors,” said Tester, Chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. “My bill strengthens gun rights by ensuring that kind of transparency. And I plan to keep standing in the way of anyone trying to curtail our rights under the guise of reducing crime.”

Tester’s measure would prevent ATF from circumventing Congress by collecting records on thousands of Americans’ gun purchases. It would also forbid the Department of Justice from using any federal funds to expand reporting requirements on firearms.