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 challenging 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.
