Representative Roger Williams, a Republican Congressman from Texas who chairs the House Small Business Committee, has introduced a resolution that he says expresses support for the Second Amendment over/against what he sees as the Biden administration’s efforts to exploit every opportunity to erode the public’s right to be armed.
Recent years have seen a number of novel administrative and legislative moves aimed at restricting gun rights, and Williams says that the administration has the “stated goal” to make exercising the right to keep and bear arms as difficult as possible.
The resolution has been timed to coincide with the implementation of an IFR (Interim Final Rule) by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the Department of Commerce (DOC) which changes the DOC’s policy on the license for export of ammunition, guns, and related components.
The DOC said in an April press release that the changes were intended to help prevent legally exported weapons and parts from being used in regional conflicts, the drug trade, political violence, and human rights violations that work against the interests of US national security and foreign policy aims.
That release, and the IFR, follow a freeze on most gun exports that the DOC imposed in October of 2023. In its announcement of the freeze, it claimed it needed to take time to assess the risks of firearms being diverted after export.
The freeze lifts when the IFR take effect. Additionally, the DOC has said that the BIS will revoke licenses for firearms export to non-government entities in State Department-identified risk zones.
Williams specifically targeted the regulation in his resolution. Te founding fathers, his resolution says, lays out a vision where every citizen will enjoy the right to protect their own family, their own property, and their own lives. The Biden Administration, it alleges, has gone to “extreme lengths” (which include ignoring Congress) to criminalize otherwise law-abiding gun owners.
The resolution also singles out the President for misusing Executive Orders to that end.
