Question 14 of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) firearm transfer form 4473 was changed from exclusively “male” or “female” during the Biden Administration, giving gun buyers the third option of “non-binary.”
Form 4473 is the form would-be gun buyers must fill out to initiate the background check process conducted for all retail gun sales.
It contains questions meant to ascertain if the would-be buyer is the “actual transferee/buyer” of the gun being sold (Question 21a); if the would-be buyer has a felony indictment (Question 21c); and if the would-be buyer is “an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana, or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance”? (Question 21f).
If the would-be buyer reveals he is not the actual buyer, then the sale will not continue. Likewise, if he reveals he is a felon or “unlawful user” of the drugs explicitly listed, or of some other “controlled substance,” the sale likewise stops.
Question 21g probes the would-be buyer’s mental health, providing an avenue by which a gun purchase can be halted over mental illness.
Form 4473 has long asked for the would-be buyer to identify as “male” or “female,” but during the Biden years the ATF form began to provide a third option, “non-binary.”
Licensed gun dealers still have a bit of leeway when selling a gun, and can stop a gun sale over a “non-binary” selection, citing concerns of mental illness.
Cave Creek Guns’ owner George Urmston told Breitbart News that he anticipates the transgender gun ban currently being fashioned by the DOJ will function similarly. By recognizing transgenderism as a mental illness, the DOJ would give licensed gun dealers solid footing in denying a gun sale to a biological male who pretends he is a female, or visa versa.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
