Gun Control Groups Say They’ll Sue Over ATF Rules

During the Biden administration, Second Amendment organizations filed lawsuits over virtually every new rule put in place by the ATF, and were largely successful in their legal challenges because of the administration’s willingness to look beyond the actual laws adopted by Congress in order to put far more restrictive measures in place. 

Now that the Trump administration has laid out more than 30 rule changes of its own to ATF regulations, anti-gunners say it’s now their turn to use the courts in an attempt to halt the proposed rules from being enforced, though they’re likely to have some company from at least one 2A organization.

“This is not some sort of radical revision to federal firearms laws that’s going to make gun owners’ lives easier all the time and every day,” said [Gun Owners of America’s Aidan] Johnston. “I don’t see anything close to that in these 34 rules as far as big, huge Second Amendment wins.”

He said the organization plans to sue over other changes, including a change to how long firearm records must be kept.

The Biden administration sought to keep these records, including the personally identifying information of gun owners and their guns, indefinitely. The Trump ATF is proposing keeping the records for 30 years or so.

The Gun Owners of America says the whole registry, as they see it, as illegal and posing privacy concerns.

On the other side, gun control organizations including Giffords and Brady told NPR they are also prepared to challenge portions of the final ATF rules in court that they view as dangerous to public safety.

“Our mission is to free America from gun violence. These regulations go absolutely in the wrong direction,” said Brown, president of Brady.

Johnston is largely correct that the ATF rules aren’t “radical revisions to federal gun control laws, but that’s because the ATF doesn’t have the authority to make radical changes. It can’t repeal laws, for instance. It can’t put itself out of existence. It has to operate within the the existing framework of government. Federal agencies can make rules, but they can’t make laws.

Still, I disagree that there’s nothing in the proposed rules that are going to make it easier for gun owners to exercise their Second Amendment rights. The proposed changes to the ATF’s treatment of the Firearms Owners Protection Act, for instance, is a major improvement over the status quo, which doesn’t allow for travelers to stop to eat, make repairs to their cars, or stay overnight in hotels in states where their firearms are prohibited. That is a substantial change, and one that will benefit millions of gun owners who venture beyond their home state with their firearms. 

As for the gun control groups, I don’t think they’re going to be nearly as successful at challenging these proposed rules as 2A groups were in taking on the Biden-era rules. The ATF is generally taking a conservative approach in making regulatory changes; intent on complying with the language in statute rather than stretching it beyond recognition. 

Take the repeal of the Biden-era “engaged in the business rule,” which has infuriated anti-gun groups and is likely to be challenged once the repeal becomes final. Under Biden, the ATF simply ignored the language in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that said in order for someone to be deemed a firearms dealer they had to ““deal in firearms as a regular course of trade or business to predominantly earn a profit. through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms.” 

The ATF’s rule enacted under Biden declared that even a single offer to sell a gun could mean someone is an unlicensed gun dealer, regardless of whether the sale was completed. A federal judge in Alabama ruled the ATF had overstepped its authority by essentially rewriting federal law. If the ATF is now proposing to stick to Congress’s definition of a gun dealer, it’s going to be hard for the anti-gunners to argue that the agency is abusing its authority. 

We’ll be talking more about the ATF’s rulemaking process with ATF Director Robert Cekada on today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Company, and I’m interested to hear his response to the threats of litigation coming from the gun control crowd, as well as any hints he might drop about what future rule changes might look like. 

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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