by Eric Lendrum
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), as well as Attorney General Merrick Garland, over a new federal rule pertaining to firearms dealers.
As the Daily Caller reports, the ATF first imposed a new rule in April redefining what it means to be “engaged in the business” of selling firearms, so that the law would now include anyone who simply sells a smaller number of guns. The NRA filed its lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, seeking an injunction to block enforcement of the regulation.
The core of the NRA’s legal argument is that the ATF has overstepped its authority by circumventing Congress and implementing a new law that should have been decided by lawmakers first.
“The Executive Branch cannot step into Congress’s shoes and write laws for our nation,” the lawsuit declares. “Congress’s clear legislative will has always been—and still is—that private buyers and sellers of firearms fall outside the scope of federal statutory restrictions on dealers.”
The lawsuit also notes that the new rule “drastically expands the scope of federal criminal liability,” and turns previously legal actions into crimes overnight.
“Congress has, by legislative enactment, regulated firearms dealers who are ‘engaged in the business’ of selling firearms since 1938,” the lawsuit continues. “The phrase ‘engaged in the business’ remained undefined until 1986 when Congress amended the Gun Control Act of 1968 to ensure that law-abiding citizens could engage in private, unregulated transactions involving firearms without fear of prosecution.”
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Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
