A federal judge on Sunday night temporarily blocked background check rules issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Attorney General Merrick Garland on April 10 announced rules covering background checks for firearm purchases, building on bipartisan legislation passed in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting. He claimed thatMatthew J. Kacsmarik, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas issued Temporary restraining order preventing enforcement of this rule until June 2nd.
This rule significantly expands the definition of when someone is “engaged in the business” of being a gun dealer subject to background check regulations, thereby expanding the number of people who must submit to a background check. I will do it. The rule would effectively require gun dealers to conduct background checks when selling firearms at gun shows or online.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other Republican state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on May 1 seeking to block the rule. (Related: Republican AG files lawsuit against Biden’s ATF over background check rules)
🚨BREAKING NEWS: We secured a temporary restraining order against the Biden administration, preventing illegal ATF regulations from going into effect: We are relieved to be able to secure a restraining order to stop this illegal regulation 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 to prevent this illegal rule from going into effect,” Paxton told reporters. release. “The Biden administration cannot unilaterally overturn Americans’ constitutional rights and nullify the Second Amendment.”
The Biden administration has pushed for several gun regulations since the bipartisan Safe Areas Act was passed in June 2022 in the wake of the mass 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, officials said. . May 1st release By Austin Knudsen, Republican Attorney General of Montana.
Attorney General Ken Paxton secures temporary restraining order against Biden administration to prevent illegal ATF rules from taking effect: https://t.co/lg0gSTNrVG
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) May 20, 2024
“President Biden and his anti-gun administration have aggressively promoted policies designed to harass, intimidate, and criminalize gun owners and sellers at every turn,” said Gun Owners of America Executive Vice President. Eric Pratt said. “This ruling is a convincing rebuke of their tyrannical and unconstitutional conduct in intentionally misinterpreting federal law to ensure their desired policy outcomes.”
“We will continue to fight to ensure that this administration’s goal of creating a comprehensive database of firearm transaction records never succeeds, and this rule would have been essential to achieving that goal,” Pratt continued.
The White House and National Rifle Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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