On July 10, 2024, Federal District Judge Toby Crouse (appointed by Trump), sitting in Kansas, denied a request by two dozen states, including Tennessee, for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against the ATF’s new “engaged in business” rule. Opinion below.
The result of this ruling is that the ATF’s new rule which redefines the concept “engaged in business” is now in effect in Tennessee and most other states but not in Texas, Utah, Mississippi or Louisiana. As a result of the separate Texas lawsuit, the ATF is also prohibited for now from enforcing its engaged in business rule against the members of Gun Owners of America, Tennessee Firearms Association or Virginia Citizens Defense League.
The extreme danger presented by the Kansas decision and the ATF’s new rule is that the purpose of the rule was clearly to eliminate many of the established exceptions to whether an individual would be required to obtain a federal firearms license if they engaged in any conduct that the rule or its examples indicates would reclassify their conduct as something that might require federal licensure. As a result of the differential results in these two cases at this time, Tennesseans who are not protected from the rule’s enforcement because of the Kansas decision are likely to be treated materially different, even potentially prosecuted by the federal government, whereas members of Tennessee Firearms Association (GOA and/or VCDL) are shielded by the injunction that issued in the Texas decision.
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