The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Joe Biden seems to have been turned loose to make as many new restrictive gun laws as possible—Congress and American citizens be damned.

Hot on the heels of the recent Final Rule that redefined who is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms, the ATF has now announced another round of rulemaking that would move Americans a bit  closer to the so-called “universal” background checks that President Joe Biden and other gun-ban advocates talk about so often.

Called the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act Conforming Regulations,” the new rule claims to be following directions from the ill-advised Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) passed by Congress last year. Interestingly, ATF is calling the change a “direct final rulemaking,” making it possible to avoid the restrictions set down on bureaucratic agencies via the Administrative Procedures Act.

In a news item, NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action detailed the latest rulemaking and the dangers of it.

“Beyond dealer licensing requirements, the subject of ATF’s first BSCA rule, the BSCA made a number of far-reaching changes,” NRA-ILA wrote. “These include expanding the prohibitor for so-called ‘misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence;’ creating new crimes for straw purchases of firearms; providing for ‘enhanced’ background checks for firearm purchasers under age 21; and doling out grants for state ‘red flag’ laws.”

The “expanded” background checks for gun owners under 21 is particularly offensive, as 18-, 19- and 20-year gun owners are perhaps the most discriminated against adults in the nation. But anti-gun Democrats in Congress, helped out by a handful of Republicans who jumped ship and sided with the enemy, included those provisions in the BSCA.

“With respect to these enhanced background checks of under-21 transactions, Congress imposed two overarching requirements upon NICS via the BSCA,” the proposed new rule states. “First, in addition to the traditional NICS check of relevant FBI systems, NICS is required to conduct additional outreach to three specified types of State and local entities to determine whether the prospective transferee has a ‘possibly disqualifying juvenile record’ under 18 U.S.C. 922(d). Second, beyond the possibility of a three-business-day investigatory period already allowed for a NICS transaction as noted above, the BSCA provides for an additional investigatory period, if needed, as part of an under-21 transaction, up to a total of ten business days.”

Because of the “direct final rulemaking” designation, ATF is only allowing a 30-day period for interested Americans to submit comments on the sweeping rule, making the deadline May 12. According to the text of the rule, in the absence of “significant adverse comment,” the rule will take effect as written on July 18.

“If ATF receives a significant adverse comment within the stated time that warrants revising the rule … the Department will publish notification in the Federal Register, withdrawing this direct final rule before its effective date,” the rule states.