TOPEKA, Kansas — A federal judge in Kansas has refused to allow nationwide enforcement of a Biden administration rule by requiring gun dealers to conduct background checks on buyers at gun shows. Texas is the only state so far where a legal challenge has been successful.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Toby Crouse this week came in a lawsuit filed by Kansas and 19 other states, three individual gun collectors and a collectors’ association in Wichita, Kansas. They sought an injunction barring the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from enforcing the rule, which took effect in May, through the lawsuit.
Twenty-six states with Republican attorneys general, gun owners groups and individual gun collectors filed three federal lawsuits against the Biden administration in May. The rule is an attempt to close a loophole that allows tens of thousands of guns to be sold annually by unlicensed dealers without checks to see if buyers are legally prohibited from owning firearms. It applies not only to gun shows but also to places outside of brick-and-mortar gun stores.
Critics argue that the new rule violates gun rights protected by the Second Amendment and that the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden does not have the legal authority to enact it. They also argue that the rule will depress gun sales, making firearms less available to collectors and costing states tax revenue.
But Crouse, a nominee of former President Donald Trump, said in his ruling Wednesday that predictions of harm to the states, gun collectors and groups are overly speculative and raise doubts about whether they actually have grounds to sue. He said such doubts undermine their argument that they are likely to win their case — a key question for courts in deciding whether to block a rule or law ahead of a trial.
“While they may ultimately be vindicated on the facts, they have failed to provide strong evidence that this is likely to actually happen,” Crouse wrote.
Crouse’s statement contrasts with another statement Trump made in Texas before the rule took effect. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk blocked its enforcement in that state and against members of four groups, including Gun Owners of America. But Kacsmaryk did not block it in three other states that joined Texas in his lawsuit — Louisiana, Mississippi and Utah.
Florida has filed a lawsuit in federal court, but the judge has not yet ruled.
The states also sued U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, the U.S. Department of Justice and the director of the ATF. The Justice Department declined to comment on Crouse’s ruling Friday.
Phil Journey, one of the gun collectors involved in the Kansas case, said he doesn’t know whether Crouse’s ruling will be appealed.
“I am confident that the rule and perhaps the underlying law will ultimately be overturned,” Journey, a former Kansas state senator who is now a district judge in Wichita, said in a text message.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said in a statement that he expects the rule will eventually be repealed.
“This is a very early stage in a case that is likely to drag on for a long time unless President Trump is elected and immediately rescinds the rule,” Kobach said.
In the Crouse lawsuit, Kansas was joined by Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The lawsuit was originally filed in a federal court in Arkansas, with that state also suing. But in a ruling just days after the rule took effect, U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr., an appointee of former President Barack Obama, said Arkansas had no standing to sue because the argument that it could lose tax revenue was too speculative. Moody then transferred the case to Kansas.