More Testimony From Holder

He’s incredulous that the DOJ is being sued over the long gun reporting requirement. In response to Senator Feinstein:

I think that that regulation requirement is an extremely reasonable one. It has all of the features that you have described and I think significantly is totally consistent — it is exactly what we have been doing for years with regard to the sale of handguns. And the notion that somehow or other we are in litigation now, being sued try to do the very same thing that we have done with handguns for years with regard to weapons that are far more dangerous, is really beyond me.

I don’t understand how that can be opposed given the fact that this would provide ATF, other federal agencies with useful information in trying to stop the problem that has been the subject of so much discussion. Those that have been some of the harshest critics of ATF have voted against this very, very sensible regulation. The House tried – has voted to block it. And I guess over 270 members of — of the House voted against what I think as I said is a very reasonable regulation and one that is totally consistent, exactly consistent with what we’ve been doing with handguns for years. I think since the mid 80’s.

First, the real objection to this, for anyone who cares about the rule of law, is there’s just no power granted by Congress to implement this regulation. In fact, the Gun Control Act, as amended by the Firearms Owners Protection Act, specifically forbids the Attorney General from promulgating this kind of regulation. I wouldn’t care if the regulation was for handing lollipops to little children: we have laws in this country and the executive branch is bound to them. The Attorney General is not a dictator.

Secondly it seems ridiculous, when the ATF was unable to keep track of firearms that dealers were voluntarily reporting, how it’s going to help ATF to have many times the amount of data to process.