Unlicensed Gun Sales: Federal Judge Blocks Expanded Regulation

DALLAS, Texas – Last week, a federal judge in Texas blocked an expanded regulation that requires gun sellers – including individuals – to conduct background checks in four states.

Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Utah challenged the new federal rule, arguing it would essentially criminalize unlicensed gun sales between individuals if the seller offers additional guns for sale.

“Engaged in the business”

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a preliminary injunction, stopping the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) from enforcing new rules that expand background checks to individuals, gun shows, flea markets, and more. These rules use a 2022 law signed by President Joe Biden following the Uvalde school shooting.

“They cannot engage in lawful, noncommercial conduct without fear of prosecution,” Judge Kacsmaryk wrote in his opinion. “They cannot collect firearms for personal defense while enjoying statutory protection. Nor can they dispose of firearms from their personal collections for fear of being presumed ‘engaged in the business.’”

He added that the new rule would require “firearms owners to prove innocence rather than the government proving guilt.”

The judge noted that the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, under which the rule-making proceeded, specifically applies to those who “devote time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business to predominantly earn a profit through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms, but such term shall not include a person who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms.”

However, the new ATF rule went further, stating “a single firearm transaction or offer to engage in a transaction” may be sufficient to require a license.

Judge Kacsmaryk ruled that the rule exceeded the statutory language.

The Mississippi Attorney General’s office declined to comment, considering the matter ongoing litigation. An appeal from the federal government is likely.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.