Gun rights groups Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation, along with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, have filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration. The lawsuit challengs the ATF’s new rule expanding background checks to certain private gun sales.
The rule redefines terms like “engaged in the business” to broaden the types of sales requiring checks. It also suggests people who smuggle guns abroad for sale could be considered dealers.
The groups argue the rule will criminalize lawful gun owners and infringe on Second Amendment rights. They had warned the bipartisan gun law used to justify the rule would be used to impose further restrictions, and are now challenging another major policy resulting from that legislation.
“We warned the American public that this legislation brokered by Senator Cornyn was no small compromise, and here we are today filing our second lawsuit challenging a major policy derived from that anti-gun law,” GOA senior vice president Erich Pratt stated.
“Yet again, Joe Biden is weaponizing the federal bureaucracy to rip up the Constitution and destroy our citizens’ Second Amendment rights. This is a dramatic escalation of his tyrannical abuse of authority. With today’s lawsuit, it is my great honor to defend our Constitutionally-protected freedoms from the out-of-control federal government,” Paxton said.
Today, the Justice Department revealed the submission of the “Engaged in the Business” Final Rule to the Federal Register. This rule specifies the situations that classify a person as being actively involved in firearm dealing and therefore mandates the acquisition of a federal firearms license. The goal is to enhance adherence to the federal background check mandate for firearm sales conducted by federal firearms license holders.
“Under this regulation, it will not matter if guns are sold on the internet, at a gun show, or at a brick-and-mortar store: if you sell guns predominantly to earn a profit, you must be licensed, and you must conduct background checks,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “This regulation is a historic step in the Justice Department’s fight against gun violence. It will save lives.”
“The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act enhanced background checks and closed loopholes, including by redefining when a person is ‘engaged in the business’ of dealing in firearms. Today’s rule clarifying application of that definition will save lives by requiring all those in the business of selling guns to get a federal license and run background checks — thus keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
“I applaud the hard work of ATF in drafting this rule and reviewing the hundreds of thousands of public comments, which overwhelmingly favored the rule announced today. Because of that work, our communities will be safer.”
“This is about protecting the lives of innocent, law-abiding Americans as well as the rule of law. There is a large and growing black market of guns that are being sold by people who are in the business of dealing and are doing it without a license; and therefore, they are not running background checks the way the law requires. And it is fueling violence,” said Director Steven Dettelbach of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
“Today’s Final Rule is about ensuring compliance with an important area of the existing law where we all know, the data show, and we can clearly see that a whole group of folks are openly flouting that law. That leads to not just unfair but, in this case, dangerous consequences.”
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), passed on June 25, 2022, broadened the scope of what constitutes engaging in the business of selling firearms to include individuals who regularly invest time, effort, and work into buying and selling firearms to primarily make a profit through repetitive transactions.
President Biden’s Executive Order 14092, issued on March 14, 2023, instructs the Attorney General to create and execute a plan to specify who falls under the category of being engaged in the business of firearm dealing and therefore obligated to obtain a federal firearms license.
The Final Rule aligns the ATF regulations with the updated BSCA definition and further outlines the behaviors that automatically necessitate a license under this revised definition, among other provisions.
