Defending the Second Amendment

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in defense of the Second Amendment and in honor of Roger Theede, a freedom-loving American, gun store owner, and Kansan who has been deeply wronged by President Biden's politicized, weaponized Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

My team and I have met with Roger, his coworker Jenny, and their team in their store in Hutchinson, Kansas. Heartland Outdoor is a local, family-owned small business in central Kansas where people buy their hunting and recreational shooting supplies.

Roger has been a Federal firearm licensee for 30 years, during which time he has never had a violation or sold a gun that has been involved in a crime. He literally has decades of perfect scores from the ATF who have held his store in the highest regard, an example of how a gun store should be operated.

On ATF's most recent visit to Roger's store, however, agents found minor, unwillful, debatable issues which they called willful, serious violations. As a result, the ATF revoked Roger's license to sell firearms and effectively took his livelihood away.

Sadly, this story is not unique. It is an example of the ATF abusing President Biden's zero-tolerance policy, which he announced in June of 2021, and which resulted in a 500 percent spike in Federal firearm license revocations across the country.

Enough is enough. This week, I am introducing the Reining In Federal Licensing Enforcement Act. The RIFLE Act will hold the ATF accountable, establish separate categories for minor and serious violations, clarify the word ``willful'' as it applies to violations, and create an appeals process for individuals whose licenses were revoked on or after President Biden's zero-tolerance policy went into effect.

No gun store owner in America deserves to have his or her business shut down over a typo on a form. No gun store owner deserves to be forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees just to appeal the revocation of their license.

Apparently, since the Biden administration can't just do away with the Constitution and our Second Amendment, shutting down our local gun stores has become the strategy.

My legislation will stop that, defend the Second Amendment as a load- bearing wall in our system of rights, and honor Roger and lawful gun store owners just like him.

I invite my colleagues to cosponsor the RIFLE Act to ensure that what happened to Roger and to other lawful gun store owners across the U.S. never, ever happens again.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source