Attorney General Todd Blanche assured senators that the Justice Department was actively defending a landmark federal firearms law. But only days after securing confirmation, he allowed a crucial appeal deadline to expire—clearing the way for the first transfers of unregistered silencers in more than nine decades.
The Justice Department declined to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that dismantled registration requirements for silencers and short-barreled rifles under the National Firearms Act.
The deadline passed Wednesday without a filing.
Follow @allchronologyGun-rights organizations immediately celebrated what they portrayed as a historic Second Amendment victory. Gun-control advocates, meanwhile, accused Blanche of surrendering to political pressure and placing industry interests above public safety.
At the center of the conflict is a nearly century-old federal law.
Congress adopted the National Firearms Act in 1934, imposing a $200 tax and strict registration rules on silencers, short-barreled rifles and several other tightly regulated weapons.
The law did not prohibit possession outright. Instead, it required owners to register covered firearms with the federal government and pay the tax before completing a transfer.
Last year, however, Congress reduced that tax to zero through a budget bill.
A federal judge subsequently ruled that because the registration requirements were built around the government’s taxing authority, eliminating the tax also eliminated the legal foundation supporting those requirements.
The Justice Department could have asked a higher court to review that decision. It chose not to do so before the deadline expired.
Follow @allchronologyThat silence produced an extraordinary scene in Texas.
Gun Owners of America and Silencer Shop scheduled what they described as the first unregistered suppressor transfers since 1934. The transactions began at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday at Silencer Shop’s storefront.
Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia appeared at the event and offered an ecstatic assessment.
“Literally, greatest Second Amendment win in the history of our country is what I believe,” Clyde said, according to remarks released by his office.
But Blanche’s failure to appeal sharply conflicts with what he told the Senate Judiciary Committee only weeks earlier.
On July 15, while his nomination remained before the committee, Blanche submitted written responses addressing whether he believed the National Firearms Act should be invalidated.
“The Department’s duty is to defend the constitutionality of the laws passed by this body,” Blanche wrote. “To that end, the Department is presently defending the NFA against constitutional challenges.”
Follow @allchronologyThat statement was accurate when submitted. The Justice Department had been actively defending the law, arguing before the court on July 7 and filing additional evidence as recently as June 30.
But the government’s position changed dramatically after Blanche secured the job permanently.
The Senate confirmed him on August 8. Four days later, the seven-day appeal window closed without the Justice Department filing anything.
The sequence immediately raised an uncomfortable question: Did Blanche give senators the impression that he would continue defending the law while knowing that the administration might soon abandon it?
The available information does not establish when Blanche decided against an appeal or whether he personally made the final decision. His written answer described what the department was doing at that moment and did not explicitly promise that every adverse ruling would be appealed.
Nevertheless, senators relied on that answer while evaluating whether to confirm him as the country’s chief law-enforcement officer.
His department’s abrupt reversal therefore created the appearance that the commitment expired almost as soon as his nomination was secure.
Political pressure surrounding the decision was intense.
Nearly 50 Republican lawmakers publicly urged Blanche not to appeal the ruling. Clyde and Montana Sen. Steve Daines led an August 11 letter asking the attorney general to accept the decision and apply it nationally through formal rulemaking.
The White House was also directly involved in discussions about whether the Justice Department should appeal, according to a report from firearms publication Ammoland.
Follow @allchronologyAllowing the deadline to lapse handed those lawmakers and gun-rights groups the victory they demanded.
It also enraged organizations that view silencers and short-barreled weapons as deserving stronger oversight because of their concealability and potential use in violent crime.
“The Department of Justice had the opportunity to act to protect our safety, but it failed to do so,” Brady President Kris Brown said in a joint statement from gun-control groups.
Brown accused 47 members of Congress of being beholden to the gun lobby and pressuring Blanche to stand down.
GIFFORDS Executive Director Emma Brown issued an equally harsh condemnation.
“By not seeking a stay, the Department of Justice is putting the gun industry’s profits ahead of the American people’s safety,” she said.
Supporters of suppressors reject the portrayal of the devices as inherently sinister. They argue that suppressors reduce harmful noise, protect shooters’ hearing and remain subject to other federal and state laws.
But the controversy extends beyond whether silencers should be regulated.
It concerns the Justice Department’s institutional independence and whether an attorney general’s confirmation testimony can be trusted once the Senate vote is complete.
Blanche told lawmakers that defending congressional statutes was his department’s duty. Yet when presented with an opportunity to continue defending this law, his Justice Department remained silent.
The consequence was immediate.
A regulatory system that had endured for 92 years collapsed. Gun-rights activists began conducting unregistered transfers, and Republican lawmakers celebrated a legal transformation they had aggressively pressured Blanche to permit.
Follow @allchronologyThe Justice Department may eventually explain why it concluded an appeal was unwarranted. It could argue that Congress itself undermined the registration system by eliminating the tax upon which it depended.
But that explanation will not erase the timing.
Before confirmation, Todd Blanche emphasized his duty to defend the National Firearms Act.
Four days after confirmation, the government let its opportunity to save the law disappear.
