In the latest legal skirmish between state and federal authorities, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is once again at the forefront, this time contesting the Justice Department’s recent move to broaden background check requirements for private gun sales.
According to NBCDFW, the Justice Department’s new rules mandate background checks and licenses for private firearm transactions, extending regulations typically applied to gun store sales to include those conducted among acquaintances, family members, and gun shows.
Paxton deems these regulations as an unconstitutional overreach of federal authority, and is leading a multistate coalition, including Louisiana, Missouri, and Utah to sue the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) for “unlawfully attempting to abridge Americans’ constitutional right to privately buy and sell firearms.”
In a statement, Paxton claimed: “Yet again, Joe Biden is weaponizing the federal bureaucracy to rip up the Constitution and destroy our citizens’ Second Amendment rights.”
“This is a dramatic escalation of his tyrannical abuse of authority. With today’s lawsuit, it is my great honor to defend our Constitutionally-protected freedoms from the out-of-control federal government,” he concluded.
Paxton is joined by Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who agreed this was an overreach of federal authority claiming “the Second Amendment could never have contemplated this kind of regulation and it will not withstand scrutiny in the courts.”
Conversely, the Biden Administration defends the action as part of a broader strategy to combat the influx of illegally obtained firearms into communities and hold accountable those responsible for supplying weapons used in criminal activities.
Paxton was joined by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Wes Virdell, Texas State Director of Gun Owners of America, in Frisco, when they announced the lawsuit. Both Paxton and Kobach said they anticipate a prompt judicial ruling on the matter, hoping for a resolution within a month’s time.
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