Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been granted a temporary restraining order that will prevent a broad expansion of federal background checks for firearms purchases for the time being.
The rule was designed to close the so-called gun loophole that allows tens of thousands of guns to be sold every year by unlicensed dealers who do not perform background checks to ensure the potential buyer is not legally prohibited from having a firearm.
Paxton, heading up a coalition that includes Louisiana, Missouri and Utah, sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, claiming the rule is an attempt to “abridge Americans’ constitutional right to privately buy and sell firearms.”
“I am relieved that we were able to secure a restraining order that will prevent this illegal rule from taking effect,” Paxton wrote in a news release announcing the temporary stay. “The Biden Administration cannot unilaterally overturn Americans’ constitutional rights and nullify the Second Amendment.”
It’s the administration’s latest effort to combat gun violence. But in a contentious election year, it’s also an effort to show voters — especially younger ones for whom gun violence deeply resonates — that the White House is trying to stop the deaths.
“This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “And my administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives. Congress needs to finish the job and pass universal background checks legislation now.”
The rule would mean that thousands more firearms dealers across the country would have to run background checks on buyers at gun shows or other locations outside brick-and-mortar stores.
The rule additionally clarifies that anyone who sells firearms predominantly to earn a profit must be federally licensed and conduct background checks, regardless of whether they are selling on the internet, at a gun show or at a brick-and-mortar store, Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters in April.
Among those opposed to the new rule is Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is frequently at odds with Paxton.
Two summers ago, President Biden held a ceremony on the White House South Lawn shortly after signing into law sweeping gun safety legislation. The bipartisan law followed a mass shooting at an Uvalde, Texas, elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Cornyn helped to negotiate the law, but now he now objects to how the Biden administration is implementing it.
In a joint statement, Cornyn and another negotiator on the gun safety law, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, called the rule “unconstitutional.”
The statement said the rule was “not based on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and any claim otherwise from the administration is an outright lie. This rule has long been on Democrats’ wish list.”
When the ATF first proposed the rule, Cornyn and Tillis sent a letter last year saying the measure would go further than what they intended under the bipartisan law.
“This was done to prevent someone who should register as a firearms dealer from evading licensing requirements because he or she had another job that supported his livelihood,” the senators said in the letter. “We wanted to clarify that if a person has a job and also operates a firearms business, he or she must still register as a firearms dealer.”
According to Paxton, the ATF rule is halted until June 2 so that hearing may be held.
Capital Tonight reporter Reena Diamante contributed to this report.