Judges Rules Against
Another Biden-Era Policy

In a landmark ruling that signals a victory for law-abiding gun owners, a federal court ruled against the Biden administration's 2024 rule, Definition of "Engaged in the Business" as a Dealer in Firearms—an expansive reinterpretation of who must register as a federal firearms dealer. The decision, issued this week by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in Butler v. Bondi, found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had overstepped its authority and effectively rewritten federal law without congressional approval.

At the heart of the case was the ATF's Final Rule, announced in April 2024, which attempted to "clarify" the criteria for determining when an individual is considered "engaged in the business" of dealing in firearms. The court, however, saw it differently. The court ruled that the ATF's interpretation wasn't a clarification at all, but an unlawful expansion of the definition Congress established nearly four decades ago and amended in 2022 with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

Federal law has long required anyone "engaged in the business" of dealing firearms to obtain a federal firearms license (FFL). Under the Firearms Owners' Protection Act (FOPA) of 1986, that phrase was specifically defined to apply to those who buy and sell guns "as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit." Congress also made sure to carve out explicit protections for private gun owners—stating that those who make "occasional sales, exchanges or purchases" for a hobby or personal collection are not considered to be in the business of selling firearms. …