On the recordJune 2, 2015
I thank Congresswoman Black for this amendment and for bringing it to the attention of the House tonight. Madam Chair, this issue came to my attention a couple of years ago when I was with constituents in my district. They were gun dealers, and they were complaining and telling me how the administration quietly began requiring the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives--we call it the ATF--to record a firearms purchaser's race and ethnicity. This, Madam Chair, is not law. It is not congressional action. We did not do this. The ATF, through administration rules, requires the race of the gun purchaser, and the seller who is selling the gun has got to check the box and write the race of the gun purchaser. {time} 2350 If they do not do that or they do it wrong, the ATF can come back later, look at the records, say ``You left it blank on the race of the individual,'' and shut the business down. Now, there are several problems with this new rule by the ATF. In order to avoid breaking this Federal regulation, the dealers then have to ask the customers their race, and when people are offended--and they get offended--they take it out on the dealers themselves. Sometimes refuse to give their race, and then what is the gun seller to do? Why is our government racial profiling people who exercise the Second Amendment? Why are they doing that? Second, it is none of the government's business the race of a gunowner. The Second Amendment does not just apply to certain races.…
