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of this great country. And under his leadership, this administration, this Justice Department is acting on that belief. I want to make sure folks understand that the work that we're talking about today is not finished today. We're continuing to review every regulation, especially those from the previous administration, and we'll keep putting forward additional proposals as that review continues. For example, ATF is studying right now to determine which rifles are generally recognized as particularly suitable for sporting purposes. That's going to be an ongoing effort over the next several months and we're going to see that through.
But okay, so let's get what we're here to do. I'm going to close by saying that, and I hope folks in this room know that this is absolutely true. Rob is exactly the right person to lead ATF at this moment. First, he owns more guns than I think pretty much anyone I know. He's one heck of a shot. I've seen him at the range. I've shot with him at the range. He's a lot better than me. But more importantly, he understands this work inside and out. He understands the mission and he understands the importance of getting it right. So, welcome, please, to the microphone the newly confirmed director of the ATF, Rob Sicado.
Good afternoon. Thank you again to President Trump, the acting attorney general, and DOJ for their leadership and partnership. Today's a great day for ATF, DOJ, and a great day for lawful gun owners and federal firearms licenses, and a great day for all of America. While I'm proud to be one to represent ATF today, this moment is not about me or any one individual. Credit for today goes to the entirety of DOJ and ATF teams, their regulatory teams, legal teams, administrative and operational staff. It is because of their collective efforts over the last year that a day like today came together with 34 new proposals.
Let me put that number into perspective. I've been with ATF for over 20 years. I have never seen a regulatory package of this scale. In fact, we are going to be signing just about as many rules as have been proposed during my entire 20 years with this agency. It was an immense amount of work, and I believe it's moving the agency in the right direction. Again, my sincere thanks go to ATF and our DOJ teams for putting this package together.
How do we get here? At the outset of this administration, we committed to a promise. Is that promise being kept? Over the last year, we undertook a serious, sustained review looking at court decisions, license feedback, statutory text. We reviewed our forms and our requirements. We spoke with stakeholders. We worked closely with the DOJ leadership team, and we identified those regulations that needed reform. In my time with ATF, I have seen how regulation creep can come in like a fog, creating vague and shifting tests and subjective interpretations that lead to inconsistent enforcement practices and ultimately an erosion of public trust. Today, we are clearing the fog, restoring clarity, consistency, and predictability for all Americans.
In today's package, you will see 34 clear, common-sense regulations that rescind, modernize, or clarify language within the National Firearms Act, the Gun Control Act, and more. We are proposing to remove unnecessary hurdles that were standing in the way of law-abiding citizens and businesses. We are proposing to restore clarity and predictability in our standards. We are beginning responsive to court orders that our constituents needed for clear, decisive instruction so action can be taken to rescind what didn't work.
As a personal remark, I'd be remiss if I didn't add here that we did and always will take public safety into account when creating proposals. I've been a law enforcement officer for over 34 years, and believe me when I tell you that I take public safety seriously, and I would never let the public be at risk based on the regulations that we are proposing today. ATF remains the greatest friend to state and local law enforcement officers, and we believe that these rules will not negatively impact public safety.
With that, here are some key highlights. The stabilizing brace rule, which came into effect in 2023. That rule, formally, we are proposing to rescind. There are courts in multiple jurisdictions which we found violated the APA. They were enjoined or vacated across the country. We believe that the common-sense approach is to align regulatory text with those judicial determinations rather than keeping them on the books as regulations that would have already been thrown out.
Engage in the business, which came into effect in 2024. We are also formally proposing to rescind the engage in the business rule. We believe that responsible regulatory governance requires adjusting the course when evidence shows a rule has not worked as intended. The ATF has found the changes to the definition of who was engaged in business have now produced the outcomes needed to justify keeping the rule. As you'll see, today's proposed rule retains the definition of engage in the business as specifically revised and codified by Congress. No more, no less.
We are also formally proposing modernizing our forms. One proposal is to update Form 4473 to ensure it keeps pace with modern business practices, like authorizing the use of electronic forms, functions like autopopulation of fields, and allowing people to attach digital files as attachments. We also make minor technical revisions to shorten the form, thereby reducing the administrative burden on both the FFLs and transferees. Another proposal related to the forms is to allow FFLs to generate and store its records, including its A and D books, records, and all 4473 issues, using an electronic recordkeeping system. This codifies a practice that the industry has used through a variance for years and has been demonstrated to work very well. We also believe it supports law enforcement by allowing FFLs to more easily respond to legitimate law enforcement trace requests when asked.
In our next steps, there are many more proposals in the package that will follow this rule package. Some of them are simple language clarifications. Others are much more comprehensive. I believe we will talk about them in broad strokes when we sign, but considering how many there are, we simply don't have time to go through them in detail now. Our plan is to hold, over the next few weeks, some stakeholder briefings where we will meet with you in smaller, more focused groups and dive deep into the regulations that will affect each of you the most. I will do my best to be at each of these meetings. But today, more importantly, here with me today is Chief Counsel Robert Lighter, who's probably going to be the most helpful to you in those briefings. He's a legal scholar on the Second Amendment, a professor, and has been instrumental during his time as chief counsel at getting us to this point. I can assure you that he can handle all of your technical questions. I really appreciate you all being here. I thank you. I thank Robert. I thank you for ensuring our stakeholder groups get the information that they need.
For now, moving forward, the proposed and final rules in this regulatory package are going to be sent over to the Federal Register, where they will be published in short order. In the interim, we do have summaries of the proposals on our website, and as soon as they are published in the Federal Register, we will have links to where you can submit your public comments. Finally, as Acting Attorney General Blanch shared, our work is not done. While we are proud of the work that has been done in getting us to this point, this isn't over. The next step will be an open comment period where we invite input on our proposed changes from our industry stakeholders, law enforcement agencies, advocacy groups, and the general public. After today's event, please visit our website at ATF.gov to find out more about the proposals we are signing and sending over to the Federal Register to be published. There you will find information on how to submit comments via regulations.gov. And as Acting Attorney General Blanch shared, today is just the first package of proposals to be released. We will work closely with the Department of Justice to continue to review our rules and ensure they are modernized to reflect current practices, to adhere to court rulings, and ultimately to reduce unnecessary burdens on law-abiding citizens and businesses.
With that, let's get started with signing.
All right. The first group of regulations repeals regulations that are inconsistent with law, including the engage in the business rule and the stabilizing brace rule, as you mentioned.
All right. Second group is clarifying regulations that are clarifying. So, these are going to clarify, for example, who is adjudicated for purposes of mental disability to prevent the disarming of veterans. It is also going to define who constitutes a straw purchaser and will clarify also how to certain markings for the National Firearms Act. And among the most important rules will clarify what willfulness means for the purposes of the Gun Control Act and revocation of federal firearms licenses. Thank you.
All right. This group of regulations will modernize the current regulations. So, it includes a new 4473, which is the firearms transaction form, which will be simpler and less apt of making the kinds of paperwork errors that resulted in the zero tolerance policies of the prior administration. It also authorizes electronic recordkeeping and it revises the firearm record retention period from forever to a defined term of years that will be determined through notice and comment, including for the out-of-business records that are currently held by ATF forever. That will be reduced to a specified time period as well.
All right. The next group of regulations will align ATF regulations with the law. It includes how to new provisions that are simpler for interstate transport of National Firearms Act firearms. It also includes some conforming changes in how we process National Firearms Act limitations. And it implements the One Big Beautiful Bill Act regarding the tax remittance.
All right. And the final group of regulations reduces burdens on law-abiding gun owners. This includes, for example, clarifying how gun owners may transport their firearms interstate, particularly when they're going between modes of transportation such as vehicles to airplanes. It also has a host of other simplifications for the processing of forms under the National Firearms Act and also recognizes the ability, for example, of spouses to jointly register firearms that they may be in joint possession of. Thank you.
All right. Thanks a lot, Rob, and thanks to our newly confirmed director of the ATF. I'd like So, I'm happy to take some questions. I want to try to keep the questions at least primarily to the reason why we're here today. So, the ATF regulations or the recent confirmation of the director of ATF, but we're happy to take some questions.
Can you just speak up just a little bit? The acoustics are not great. Yes, of course we are. So, we've been doing that for a year and two months. Every case is different. Every fact leading up to where we are in litigation is different, whether we're at the district court level, whether we're at the court of appeals, the basis for the district court's decision. And so we don't, it's not rational or it's not possible for us to just unwind on a given Monday. We just recently got out of a case two weeks ago that had been pending for a long time. And so I think that we've recently argued some cases in front of the Supreme Court. We've had some cases in the Court of Appeals. And this is something that we're looking carefully at case by case to make sure that we are doing the right thing consistent with the Constitution, consistent with the Second Amendment, consistent with this administration's priorities. And so yes, it's not as smooth as a single day, but it's also not as clunky as taking forever.
So, I understand that there is shocker leaks around that. But I'm not going to get ahead of the work of the law enforcement. It would not surprise me if it turns out that our Secret Service agent was shot by the individual who's currently been charged with that crime. But that is something that would be wildly inappropriate for me to comment on beyond saying just that, just because there's when we know something, I'm sure that we will let the folks know. But I just want to get that right instead of speculate.
Sorry, which Rob got it. Okay. Sorry. Thank you, sir. Many of them also. Sure. I won't speak for all of them, but I think we have a very good relationship despite what may go on publicly. We all have to be, I guess, part of a show publicly at times. But I will say that we've all been able to have very good discussions about what their concerns are as to what our concerns are relating to public safety and maintaining a balance without actually using public safety as a crutch to use as an excuse to infringe on someone who is a law-abiding American citizen and us infringing on their Second Amendment rights. I think ATF has historically, and I can say for sure over the past year and a half under this administration in particular, we've been a thousand percent focused on violent criminals and looking to hold people accountable for crimes they commit using firearms illegally or crimes that involve arson or explosives, and we will continue doing that.
Look, every case is different. Every threat's case is different. And so that means that there can, what is, what does that mean? That means that the nature of the threat, the person who makes the threat, and then the investigation around the threat. And so you cannot, it would be ill-advised for anybody to compare a particular statement to another statement that appears similar when there's been a thorough investigation. Nobody in this room has any idea what happened during a grand jury investigation between May 15th and yesterday. And so that's, and that's reflective of the work that the FBI, the Secret Service, US Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of North Carolina did. And so it's, I mean, you know that every time that's posted, that number is posted. You know that every time there is a threat against the president, it doesn't necessarily lead to an indictment. It depends. It depends on the investigation. It depends on all kinds of factors. And so it's not, people should be very wary of threatening the life of President Trump because that is a crime. Full stop. Okay. Now, whether it's a crime that we will ultimately charge depending on, you know, you mentioned the First Amendment, sure, or other case or other investigative steps or things that we learn or things that we uncover from talking to witnesses, reviewing evidence. So, on the one hand, the fact that people are questioning why we would be, you know, there should be no doubt, you cannot threaten the life of the President of the United States. You can't do it. Okay. And so beyond that, I'm not going to comment. We've had an indictment returned by a grand jury in North Carolina. I think my understanding is Mr. Comey appeared in court in Virginia today. I'm not sure the schedule beyond that. Haven't caught up to folks about that, but he will be given every single right, every single opportunity to defend his case in court, and the US Attorney's Office should be given every single right to do exactly what they have a right to do as well.
Other questions? Yep. Ma'aming Mr. Senate. The timing, I said this in the beginning, I wasn't making it up. It's largely coincidental. I mean, we scheduled this a couple weeks ago once we were ready to roll out the regulations. I had hoped that the math would line up so that there could be a signed commission today. It turns out not only is there not a signed commission, but he was confirmed literally moments before we walked out. That's, you know, welcome to Washington. But as far as, yes, we have, yes, of course, we talked to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, people who are for these regulations, people who are against these regulations. That's our job. And what we are trying to do, and what I think Rob Lighter did, what the ATF did, working with the Department of Justice, is to bring these regulations into a place where they need to be, whether it's compliance with the Supreme Court, compliance with the law, catching up to modernization. I mean, you had situations where that were just, you heard us talk about it in big terms, like we're just allowing for the filing of electronic forms. That shouldn't shock anybody in this room. Okay. So there's things like that, and then there's more, there's ones that are maybe considered more controversial. Okay. I mean, President Trump, this administration, this newly confirmed director of the ATF views the Second Amendment as nothing other than one of the most important amendments in our Constitution. It's not a second-class amendment. And so the regulations that we're adjusting today reflect that, the policies of President Trump, but they happen to be the policies of the Department of Justice and the ATF as well.
How confident are you? You mean what? Whether I have optimism that they're going to survive scrutiny in the courts, that's the question. I mean, I look, I went and found the smartest guy in the country who clerked for Justice Thomas and asked him to make sure that we put together regs that are not only consistent with the Second Amendment and our priorities but also going to hold up in court. I'm confident. I think there's a lot of litigation that's ongoing. The Supreme Court has a couple cases pending right now that we'll get before the end of this term. There's a lot of folks behind me that will let us know if we're doing something wrong or if we're doing something right. There's a lot of folks out there, advocacy groups, that'll do the same thing, and we'll just go from there.
All right, I'll just take one more question. Thank you for telling me about the justice manual. I appreciate that. Yeah. No, no problem. Go ahead. How confident are you that engagement? If there's a prosecutor in this country that speaks about what a jury will do, they are not living up to their oath. I know that a grand jury returned a two-count indictment. I know that this case was investigated for the past year. I do not know what a jury of his peers will do at a trial that will come at some point in the future.
All right. Thanks a lot, guys. Look at