[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 200 (Tuesday, December 5, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H6115-H6116]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     DEFENDING THE SECOND AMENDMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Mann) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in defense of the Second 
Amendment and in honor of Roger Theede, a freedom-loving American, gun 
store owner, and Kansan who has been deeply wronged by President 
Biden's politicized, weaponized Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, 
and Explosives.
  My team and I have met with Roger, his coworker Jenny, and their team 
in their store in Hutchinson, Kansas. Heartland Outdoor is a local, 
family-owned small business in central Kansas where people buy their 
hunting and recreational shooting supplies.
  Roger has been a Federal firearm licensee for 30 years, during which 
time he has never had a violation or sold a gun that has been involved 
in a crime. He literally has decades of perfect scores from the ATF who 
have held his store in the highest regard, an example of how a gun 
store should be operated.
  On ATF's most recent visit to Roger's store, however, agents found 
minor, unwillful, debatable issues which they called willful, serious 
violations. As a result, the ATF revoked Roger's license to sell 
firearms and effectively took his livelihood away.
  Sadly, this story is not unique. It is an example of the ATF abusing 
President Biden's zero-tolerance policy, which he announced in June of 
2021, and which resulted in a 500 percent spike in Federal firearm 
license revocations across the country.
  Enough is enough. This week, I am introducing the Reining In Federal 
Licensing Enforcement Act. The RIFLE Act will hold the ATF accountable, 
establish separate categories for minor and serious violations, clarify 
the word ``willful'' as it applies to violations, and create an appeals 
process for individuals whose licenses were revoked on or after 
President Biden's zero-tolerance policy went into effect.
  No gun store owner in America deserves to have his or her business 
shut down over a typo on a form. No gun store owner deserves to be 
forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees just to appeal 
the revocation of their license.
  Apparently, since the Biden administration can't just do away with 
the Constitution and our Second Amendment, shutting down our local gun 
stores has become the strategy.
  My legislation will stop that, defend the Second Amendment as a load-
bearing wall in our system of rights, and honor Roger and lawful gun 
store owners just like him.
  I invite my colleagues to cosponsor the RIFLE Act to ensure that what 
happened to Roger and to other lawful gun store owners across the U.S. 
never, ever happens again.

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