Engaged In The Business  by Tom Reynolds

As SCOPE has written on several occasions, the anti-2nd Amendment forces in Washington and Albany will pass laws and regulations, basically saying: “If you don’t like it, sue us; if you have thousands of dollars and years of time to devote to the process.”  Here’s a short history of one such effort that was recently defeated, giving us renewed hope as courts are willing to uphold our constitutional rights.  

The Safer Communities Act (BSCA) of 2022 amended the Gun Control Act’s definition of being “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms. The prior standard of “principal objective of livelihood and profit” was replaced with a requirement that a person devote time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms “to predominantly earn a profit” through repetitive purchase and resale.

Trying to use the BSCA as justification, in April 2024, Joe Biden’s ATF issued a Final Rule that expanded who needs a federal firearms license (FFL) to sell guns. The ATF declared that the primary purpose of a sale need not be profit in order to require an FFL; simply advertising or offering a firearm for sale could trigger the FFL licensing mandate.  To privately sell your gun, you have to become an FFL.  The government did not have to prove the seller was a dealer and required an FFL, the seller had to prove he wasn’t a dealer.

Several states and organizations sued (Texas v. ATF.)

In June 2024, United States District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the ATF’s rule.

In April 2026, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice voluntarily dismissed its appeal of that injunction

On June 12, 2026 the court entered final judgment, vacating the rule in its entirety under the Administrative Procedure Act. The court found that the ATF had exceeded its statutory authority and that the rule was unlawful.

But the anti-gun bureaucrats in the ATF run deep, even in the Trump administration.  The ATF and DOJ filed a motion asking the judge to modify his ruling, arguing that only certain portions of the rule should be struck down, so the ATF could issue a new ‘Notice of Proposed Rulemaking’ that would revise the definition.   

On August 13, 2026, Judge Kacsmaryk denied the DOJ’s motion to alter or amend his earlier final judgment; the rule remains vacated in its entirety.  The judge wrote “Defendants cannot avoid the force of those Orders by rearranging a few words between the old Rule and the new one.”

The decision restores the statutory limits Congress enacted and reinforces that the ATF may not rewrite federal criminal law through creative regulation.

A few things to note: government bureaucrats twisted a law to fit their personal politics; this case went rather fast, only a little over two years; some states took the lead in this, which eased the private cost of challenging the government.

U S District Court Judges – like Kacsmaryk - are nominated by the President and approved by the Senate.  It’s vital that we keep pro 2nd Amendment politicians in place to appoint and approve judges who will honor the Constitution.