(USA Features) The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF) said Friday it won’t stop licensed gun retailers to sell anywhere on their own property, to include drive-up or take-away windows, as well as tables on their premises.
They can also sell firearms from their own parking lots, according to the new guidance designed to facilitate firearms commerce amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Gun retailers can also take care of the necessary paperwork and background checks on their premises as well, BATF said.
The agency only mandates that required transaction records continue to be stored and maintained inside gun stores.
Selling elsewhere other than gun shows is still forbidden, the agency said.
Curtis W. Gilbert, acting assistant director of enforcement at ATF, said the Gun Control Act has always applied to a “business premises,” and isn’t limited to the interior of a building, the Washington Times reported.
“In light of these and other provisions of the GCA, a licensed importer, manufacturer, or dealer may, in qualifying circumstances, carry out the requested activities on any part of the business premises, including the exterior of the brick-and-mortar structure, provided, the activity otherwise complies with all applicable federal laws and regulations, and any sale, delivery, or disposition would not violate any State law or published ordinance applicable at the place of sale, delivery, or other disposition,” he said.
Gun sales became controversial after several liberal jurisdictions ordered firearms retailers closed as ‘non-essential’ businesses.
But several lawsuits have been filed against a number of those shutdown orders, arguing they violate the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment guaranteeing the right to bear arms.
The suits got a boost recently from the Department of Homeland Security, which deemed gun stores essential.