LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Twenty-six Republican attorneys general filed lawsuits Wednesday challenging a new Biden administration rule requiring firearms dealers in the United States to conduct background checks on buyers at gun shows and other places outside brick-and-mortar stores.
The lawsuits filed in federal courts in Arkansas, Florida and Texas seek to block enforcement of the rule announced last month, which aims to close a loophole that allows tens of thousands of guns to be sold annually by dealers without permit that do not perform. background checks to ensure that the potential buyer is not legally prohibited from owning a firearm.
The lawsuit argues that the new rule violates the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and that Democratic President Joe Biden does not have the authority to implement it.
“Congress never passed into law the ATF’s dramatic new expansion of licensing requirements for firearms dealers, and President Biden cannot unilaterally impose it,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement. “This lawsuit is just the latest example that my colleagues in other states and I must remind the president to follow the law.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Department of Justice declined to comment on the lawsuit. Biden administration officials have said they are confident the rule, which drew more than 380,000 public comments, could withstand lawsuits.
As the 2024 presidential campaign progresses, the lawsuit and possible subsequent lawsuit could animate both sides: Republican voters who want fewer restrictions on guns and Democrats who want more restrictions on types of firearms and access to them.
Biden has made curbing gun violence a key part of his administration and re-election campaign as the country grapples with mounting mass shootings and other killings. He founded the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris, and has urged Congress to ban so-called assault weapons — a political term for a group of high-powered weapons or semi-automatic long guns like an AR-15, which can fire 30 rounds quickly without reloading. Such a ban was something Democrats shied away from just a few years ago.
Gun control advocates have long pushed to close the so-called gun show loophole and have praised the new rule on background checks.
“If we do not update our national system by closing these loopholes, there is no telling how many more Americans we will lose to gun violence,” said Kris Brown, president of the gun control group Brady. “Brady will do everything we can to defend this rule, because we know it will bring us closer to a future free of gun violence.”
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Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer and Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this report.