New York Blocks ATF Online Sales Reform

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New York is making a move to lock in their current gun sales setup before a federal rule can change it — and the reasoning behind it deserves a closer look.

"These changes proposed by the ATF prioritize gun industry profits over human lives."
— Marianna Mitchem, Everytown for Gun Safety

Nobody in that quote explains the mechanism. The proposed ATF rule still requires identity verification and a background check — the same NICS check you clear when you buy a pistol over the counter at your local gun shop. The location of the retail transaction doesn't change that.

"Hochul frames this as aligning gun sales with ammunition sales, which New York already requires to be purchased in person."

The article points out what that comparison actually reveals — New Yorkers already drive to Pennsylvania or Vermont for ammo to get around that rule. Extending a workaround-prone restriction to handguns doesn't close a loophole, it just adds friction for people who follow the law.

The piece ends on a point worth sitting with: if a background check is what makes a sale legal, it doesn't need a storefront to function. This legislation isn't closing a gap in the background check system — it's preserving a restriction by statute before anyone can demonstrate that removing it changes nothing about safety outcomes.

Worth watching whether California and Illinois pick up the same playbook before the ATF rule is finalized.

For those of you who've bought online and transferred through an FFL — has that process ever felt less rigorous to you than a straight over-the-counter purchase, or is it functionally identical from where you're standing?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett