Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R) joined a 27-state coalition of state attorneys general on Monday to oppose the new rule by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) which will require gun owners to conduct background checks and register transactions with the agency any time they sell, gift, or trade a gun.
Skrmetti announced his office will join 26 other state attorneys general and the Arizona State Legislature in a letter “demanding” the ATF drop the rule, arguing it “violates the Second Amendment” and “risks making any individual who sells a firearm for profit liable to civil, administrative, and even criminal penalties for failing to register with a federal agency.”
The rule, announced in August, was heralded by The Washington Post as the agency’s attempt to end what gun control activists call the “gun show loophole,” which allows private citizens to freely trade, sell, and gift guns. The outlet reported that the ATF rule update “would codify changes outlined” in 2022 gun control legislation signed by President Joe Biden.
In a statement, Skrmetti said, “Inserting a heavy-handed and punitive federal bureaucracy into small-scale transactions between family and friends is misguided and constitutionally suspect overreach,” and said the new “regulation will unduly burden law-abiding citizens while having no meaningful impact on violent criminals.”
Instead of threatening gun owners with fines, penalties, and prison time, Skrmetti argued, “The constitutionally sound response to gun crime is aggressive enforcement of existing criminal laws and more robust mental health options.”
Skrmetti included an excerpt of the comment letter sent by state attorneys general that questions the ATF’s intentions.
“If the Bureau was serious about combating violent crime, it would focus on enforcing the laws that are already on the books to hold violent criminals accountable for their actions,” the letter said.
The attorneys general continued, “Unfortunately, the Bureau has instead targeted innocent people who sell firearms,” which they declare “not only unlawful but wrong.”
With Skrmetti’s action, Tennessee will join the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming in demanding the ATF reverse its new rule.
In November, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously struck down the Biden administration’s new restrictions on “ghost guns,” ruling that the ATF lacked authority to enact them. That ruling represented the second major gun control blow to the Democrats’ gun agenda during the Biden administration after the Supreme Court voided a New York requirement for concealed carry permit applicants to demonstrate a need to carry a firearm.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Gun Sale at Gun Show” by M&R Glasgow. CC BY 2.0.
We have a great Attorney General in Tennessee.
I’d like to see all AG’s launch a lawsuit against the Biden Admin for allowing China to kill 300 Americans a day with Fentynal. That’s a 747 plane crash everyday.
Open Border makes it easy for the Cartels to sell it & TicTok also makes it easy.
But Joe can’t say NO to China. Gee I wonder why?
Many thanks for your service to this great State