Joe Biden, who claims the title of President-elect, is planning a sweeping ban on the online sale of firearms. An advisor with the transition team tells The Chronicle that an executive order has already been prepared and will make it illegal to send or receive firearms with the United States Postal Service or any private interstate delivery service.
Critics of the approach argue that the constitutionality of such an executive order would be suspect, and predict that a slew of Second Amendment groups would litigate the order all the way to a conservative-leaning Supreme Court.
A competing faction of Biden advisors, led by former Senator Joe Lieberman, wants Biden to avoid such an executive order so that his White House can focus on crafting ‘comprehensive gun reform’ that can find sufficient support in the Senate to make it to the floor. Detractors doubt that wide-ranging gun control law would make it through Congress and have been pushing a slew of incremental executive orders that curtails gun access.
Beto O’Rourke is expected to be named Director of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms — a promise that Biden made clear on the campaign months ago in a pledge that’s attracted criticism on the right.
“Yes, we’re going to take away your AK-15,” O’Rourke often refrained on the campaign trail with glee. Some political observers blame his 2018 loss of the US Senate election in Texas largely on hostility to the Second Amendment.
