AG Griffin co-leading 21-state coalition opposing ATF gun show loophole rule

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin on Wednesday (May 1) announced he is co-leading 20 other state attorneys general in a federal lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) over the Biden administration’s new rule regarding the ability of private collectors and hobbyists to buy and sell firearms.

The rule, which was proposed last month, requires that anyone who sells guns for profit have a license and that buyers be subject to a background check, including at firearms shows and flea markets.

“Federal law has defined who is a firearms dealer since 1938. In every iteration of that definition, private collectors and hobbyists were not included and, in many cases, were specifically exempted from that definition. In fact, then-Senator Biden praised the 1985 Firearm Owners Protection Act as a ‘balanced piece of legislation that protects the rights of private gun owners,’” Griffin said.

“In 2021, President Biden instructed his government to curtail gun rights ‘without having to go through’ Congress. The ATF’s new rule is the latest manifestation of the President’s desire to govern by fiat without consideration of the constitutional rights of Americans. This is the point of our suit filed here in Arkansas. Congress has never passed into law the ATF’s dramatic new expansion of firearms dealer license requirements, and President Biden cannot unilaterally impose them. This lawsuit is just the latest instance of my colleagues in other states and me having to remind the President that he must follow the law.”

The Biden administration proposed the rule to close what’s known as the “gun show loophole,” which critics have complained allows guns to fall into criminal hands without licensing requirements.

Today’s lawsuit is filed by the attorneys general of Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming,

The attorneys general are asking the court to postpone the rule, declare that it is unlawful and violates the Administrative Procedures Act, declare that it violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, vacate the rule, and enjoin the Department of Justice and the ATF from enforcing the rule.