A federal judge in Texas has temporarily banned the Biden administration’s new regulation requiring gun dealers to conduct background checks and obtain licenses when selling firearms at exhibits and other non-traditional gun stores.
The injunction, issued by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, will remain in force until June 2 and applies to Texas and members of gun rights organizations such as the Gun Owners of America. He declared that the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Utah “will not receive relief at this stage of litigation.”
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According to Reuters, Kacsmaryk argued that the new rule contradicts the terms of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, which increased the group of gun sellers who must get licenses. He also criticized the regulation for not allowing persons who buy or sell guns for personal safety to qualify for the same licensing exemption as those who buy or sell firearms for “personal collection.”
The judge concluded that “the statute’s safe harbor provision provides no safe harbor at all for the majority of gun owners.”
“I am relieved that we were able to secure a restraining order that will prevent this illegal rule from taking effect,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “The Biden Administration cannot unilaterally overturn Americans’ constitutional rights and nullify the Second Amendment.”
“Despite Congress having recognized the legality of private firearms sales by non-dealers, the Biden Administration issued a new regulation that would subject hundreds of thousands of law-abiding gun owners to presumptions of criminal guilt for engaging in constitutionally protected activities,” Paxton’s office stated.
President Biden has previously stated that the rule will “keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons” and that his government will “continue to do everything possible to save lives.”
The administration anticipated that the regulation would require around 20,000 weapons dealers to begin performing background checks, in addition to the 80,000 federally registered dealers who were already doing so.
“This final rule does not violate anyone’s Second Amendment rights, and it will not have a negative impact on our nation’s many law-abiding licensed firearms dealers,” Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Guns Director Steve Dettelbach previously stated. “They are already playing by the rules.”
