The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) may need to retrain agents considering multiple court rulings and changes at the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Late in the last administration, the ATF adopted an illogical policy concerning who may legally sell a firearm. According to the ‘engaged in the business’ rule, firearms dealers were not the only entities that must obtain an FFL.
Private law-abiding citizens who sell a weapon to another individual face the possibility of needing to be licensed, a restriction that is nowhere to be found in the nation’s history and tradition of gun laws. But no more.
Ruling is welcome news for gun rights advocates
A Texas-based federal court late last week struck down the ATF Final Rule, enacted in 2024 but fought from day one. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk declared the mandate null and void while warning that the ATF “may not apply the Final Rule to anyone.”
With the determination, the court announced it “concludes that Plaintiffs have succeeded on the merits of their claims, brought under the Administrative Procedure Act, against the challenged Final Rule: Definition of ‘Engaged in the Business as a Dealer in Firearms.”
The icing on the cake came with what followed in the court order. “The Final Rule is therefore VACATED.”
Another controversial gun control policy is swept away
The legal process started shortly after the announcement of the Final Rule in April 2024. On the first of May, Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation, the Tennessee Firearms Association, Virginia Citizens Defense League, and a private individual joined Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Utah in the challenge.
The ATF rule was part of the previous administration’s all-out assault on gun rights. The White House told the agency that it should work to drag the U.S. “as close as possible” to mandating universal background checks.
That is not the role of the Executive Branch.
Rather, elected officials in Congress are charged with this authority. The Final Rule was just another attempt to circumvent this stipulation, and private sales of weapons may continue.
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