Judge Keeps Major Biden Admin Gun Rule On Ice

A federal judge refused Thursday to lift an order blocking the implementation of a Biden administration rule that attempted to expand the number of people required to acquire Federal Firearms Licenses.

United States District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas, a Trump appointee, ruled that the injunction blocking the Biden administration’s “Engaged in the Business” rule would remain in place. In the ruling, Kacsmaryk chided the Justice Department for being “too clever by half” and that the rule was a means of imposing so-called “universal background checks,” which have been unable to pass Congress.

“The Court’s 2024 and 2026 Orders were clear: ATF violated the [Administrative Procedures Act] when it promulgated the Engaged in the Business Rule, so the rule cannot stand,” Kacsmaryk wrote. “Defendants cannot avoid the force of those Orders by rearranging a few words between the old Rule and the new one.”

Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed during an April 30 press conference that at least 34 rule changes would be published by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), including a repeal of the “stabilizing brace” rule imposed by the Biden administration, as well as altering two other regulations that the Biden administration used to enact gun control, one of which targeted so-called “bump stocks,” the other was known as the “Definition of ‘Engaged in the Business’ as a Dealer in Firearms” rule.

The “Definition of ‘Engaged in the Business’ as a Dealer in Firearms” rule was issued in April 2024, potentially making any private sale of firearms for a profit illegal. A federal judge blocked the rule in June 2024.

The Biden administration claimed that the “Definition of ‘Engaged in the Business’ as a Dealer in Firearms” rule merely adjusted various regulatory definitions, including “engaged in the business as a dealer other than a gunsmith or pawnbroker” and “principal objective of livelihood and profit,” so that ATF regulations could be “relied upon by the public.” One of the things it did was to define how a person was “engaging in the business” or showing intent to “predominantly earn a profit” from selling firearms, adding that failing to make a profit would not avoid ATF assuming a person was illegally dealing in firearms.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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