Earlier (2013): Gun Control—Like Immigration Law, Enforced Only Against Those Who Obey It

There is now a viral video going around of a woman claiming that the ATF is now granting exemptions to background checks to illegal aliens.

The ATF is now granting exemptions from background checks to illegals purchasing firearms? pic.twitter.com/bSBescXzGA

— ⚡️THOR⚡️ the Deplorable 🇺🇸 (@ThorDeplorable) December 28, 2023

 I do not know if this is true or not. See KrisAnne Hall’s Full Analysis of ATF Form 4473 2012.

Personally, I never encountered any illegal aliens crossing the border in possession of firearms. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. I had one friend who spotted two illegal aliens coming up a trail in the dark. He surmised that if it was a drug load, the second alien would likely have the dope. So he waited for the second alien to pass him by, then ran and tackled the last one down hard. This particular Agent used to play college football and he knew how to tackle. He turned out to be right, the second alien did have a backpack full of dope. When other Agents arrived, they searched around with flashlights to see if they could find any sign of the first alien. Instead, they found a nice shiny revolver in the middle of the trail. They surmised that the first alien was offering protection against bandits to the second alien, and when he realized they were being busted by La Migra, he tossed the handgun and took off running.

Another one of my friends who left the Border Patrol for U.S. Fish & Wildlife (the Raccoon Patrol) said he busted illegal aliens hunting with shotguns before.

More often, it was ICE Special Agents or Deportation Officers encountering illegal aliens with firearms. Deportation Officers would do jail checks to pick up illegal aliens arrested on other charges and on occasion, an illegal alien would have been picked up by a local P.D. and found to be in possession of a firearm. This used to be a fairly easy crime to charge.

However, enter our wonderful Supreme Court. See US Supreme Court rules undocumented migrants must know immigration status to be prosecuted for gun possession, by Orin France, Jurist.org, June 21, 2019. They had before them the case of an illegal alien, Hamid Mohamed Ahmed Ali Rehaif (United Arab Emirates), whose F-1 student visa expired. He stayed in the U.S. anyway and rented a handgun.

In December 2014 the Institute dismissed him for failing or withdrawing from all of his classes, and in February 2015 his visa was revoked. However, Rehaif remained in the country. He began a curious ritual where he would check into a hotel each evening, requesting a room on the 8th floor facing the Melbourne Orlando International Airport, then would check out the next morning and pay his bill in cash. All the while he frequented a firing range, where he would rent guns and purchase ammunition.

 Rehaif v. United States, WikiPedia

The Supreme Court threw out the conviction “holding that Rehaif did not knowingly commit a crime when he participated in shooting activities at a gun range.” So much for ignorance of the law not being an excuse.

Justice Alito and Justice Thomas dissented, saying:

So today’s decision is no minor matter. And §922(g) is no minor provision. It probably does more to combat gun violence than any other federal law. It prohibits the possession of firearms by, among others, convicted felons, mentally ill persons found by a court to present a danger to the community, stalkers, harassers, perpetrators of domestic violence, and illegal aliens. Today’s decision will make it significantly harder to convict persons falling into some of these categories, and the decision will create a mountain of problems with respect to the thousands of prisoners currently serving terms for §922(g) convictions.

It will make it so much more difficult to convict anyone on a gun crime charge if you have to prove that they were knowingly committing a crime. All the illegal alien has to say is that he didn’t know it was a crime. End of story, prosecution gets tossed.

There is one standard for you as a U.S. citizen and another one for illegal aliens. Imagine a convicted American felon in possession of a firearm being able to say he didn’t know it was a crime and getting his conviction tossed.