by Harold Hutchison
A federal judge temporarily blocked a background check rule issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on Sunday night.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced background check provision for firearm purchases on April 10, saying it builds on bipartisan legislation passed after the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. United States District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas released a short-lived restraining order blocking the implementation of the provision until June 2.
This rule would dramatically expand the definition of when someone is “in the business of doing business” as a gun dealer subject to background check laws, thereby increasing the number of people who must submit to background checks.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other Republican state attorneys general defendant block the rule on May 1.
🚨BREAKING: We just obtained a short-lived restraining order against the Biden administration, stopping an illegal rule from going into effect ATF: I’m relieved that we were able to obtain a restraining order that will prevent this illegal rule from going into effect. The Biden administration… https://t.co/h8by98RVb2
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) May 20, 2024
“I am relieved that we were able to obtain a restraining order that will prevent this illegal law from going into effect,” Paxton told the press release. “The Biden administration cannot unilaterally overturn Americans’ constitutional rights and invalidate the Second Amendment.”
Since the passage of the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the Biden administration has pushed numerous firearms regulations passed in June 2022 following shooting at Ross Elementary School in Uvalde.
The states of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming joined the lawsuit. 1 May release by Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen of Montana.
Attorney General Ken Paxton secures short-lived restraining order against Biden administration, stopping illegal ATF regulations from going into effect: https://t.co/lg0gSTNrVG
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) May 20, 2024
“President Biden and his anti-gun administration have aggressively pursued an agenda to harass, intimidate and criminalize gun owners and dealers at every turn,” said Gun Owners of America Senior Vice President Erich Pratt. “This ruling is a compelling rebuke to their tyrannical and unconstitutional actions, which deliberately misinterpreted federal law to secure their preferred policy outcome.”
“We will continue to fight to ensure that this administration never succeeds in its goal of building a comprehensive database of firearm transaction records, which this rule would be critical to achieving,” Pratt continued.
The White House and the National Rifle Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Harold Hutchison is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“ATF Agents” photo by ATF.
