DOJ Kills Biden's ATF 'Dealer' Power Grab

That rule, cooked up by Biden's ATF, dramatically expanded who the government could force to obtain a Federal Firearms License. Sell a handful of guns from your personal collection? Under Biden's interpretation, bureaucrats could label you a "dealer" and prosecute you for operating without a license.

Texas took the ATF to court, and Acting AG Todd Blanche's DOJ has now made clear it won't spend another taxpayer dollar defending this regulatory overreach. The motion to dismiss signals the administration is walking away from the rule entirely.

This is what winning looks like. Biden's ATF spent years weaponizing federal licensing rules to criminalize ordinary gun owners engaged in perfectly legal private sales. The rule was never about stopping criminal violence — criminals don't file paperwork.

The "Engaged in the Business" expansion was a direct assault on the private firearms market and a backdoor attempt to build a de facto gun registry. Every private sale swept into the FFL system means another record, another form, another entry in a database that has no business existing.

Texas led the charge when Washington wouldn't. AG Ken Paxton's lawsuit exposed this rule for what it always was — an unconstitutional bureaucratic overreach with no grounding in the plain text of federal law.

The ATF spent the last four years operating like a rogue agency, rewriting statutes Congress never passed and destroying the lives of gun owners who couldn't afford to fight back. Pistol brace rules, forced reset triggers, the "dealer" redefinition — all cut from the same cloth.

Blanche's DOJ pulling the plug on this defense sends a clear message: that era is over.

Gun owners, watch which lawmakers try to resurrect this rule through legislation. The fight isn't finished — it just moved from the courtroom to Capitol Hill. Contact your representatives and demand they keep ATF's licensing overreach dead and buried.