The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) struck back at accusations that a change in the Firearm Transaction Record, Form 4473, is somehow a ban on transgender or non-binary individuals exercising their Second Amendment rights.
Interviewed by The Reload, ATF Chief Counsel Robert Leider poured cold water on such charges.
Requiring that gun purchasers identify their biological sex at birth is “just a matter of coordinating which sex somebody selects on the form.”
ATF official rebuts accusations of discrimination against minority groups
Leider said he did not know how such a ban would even be possible, and he said that any confusion involving the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) would not result in a potential purchaser being turned away.
Many comments on the proposed rule focused on this concern. One came from the LGBTQ gun rights organization Pink Pistols, which declared that such a regulation “forces lawful gun purchasers into an impossible bind.”
LGBTQ group believes some will lose their Second Amendment rights
“A transgender woman who writes ‘female’ on her Form 4473 risks being accused of providing false identifying information under the President’s order,” the group said. “If she instead writes ‘male,’ she risks being accused of providing false identifying information that no longer matches the appearance of her lived identity, undermining the form’s stated purpose of helping law enforcement identify a purchaser.”
Others argued that the change “will cause a ton of confusion and lead to folks being disqualified and/or charged due to various state laws.” One commenter blamed the controversy on “culture wars.”
But Leider said the ATF is not engaging in such conflicts. He dismissed online chatter that the transgender and non-binary communities were being unfairly targeted and said dealers will simply go ahead with the firearm transaction.
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