TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Attorney General Ashley Moody is pushing back against the Biden administration's recent firearm regulation aimed at law-abiding citizens in Florida. The new rule, introduced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, requires individuals to register as dealers to engage in private sales of firearms, leading to increased bureaucracy and costs for citizens.
In response to this, Attorney General Moody stated, “This is Biden’s latest step in trying to take guns away from law-abiding Americans. We are fighting back against this federal overreach that would force thousands of law-abiding gun owners to register as federal firearms dealers and navigate a federal bureaucracy. It’s unlawful and reflects a lack of respect for our second amendment rights. We won’t stand for it.”
Moody filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration's ATF rule, arguing that it goes beyond the plain text of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and infringes on citizens' constitutional rights. The lawsuit highlights that the rule attempts to push the U.S. towards specific policy goals rather than merely clarifying existing statutes.
The lawsuit states, “The challenged rule, in fact, goes far beyond the plain text of the BSCA. It purports to force thousands of law-abiding gun owners to register as federal firearms dealers and navigate a federal bureaucracy as a precondition to engaging in constitutionally protected activity. The challenged rule is unlawful…ATF does not have authority to promulgate it because ATF’s rulemaking authority is carefully circumscribed. But even if it did, the challenged rule unlawfully attempts to depart from the plain meaning of the BSCA to achieve President Biden’s policy goals.”
Attorney General Moody's actions aim to protect the second amendment rights of Floridians and challenge what is perceived as federal overreach in regulating firearms.