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July 12, 2024
Federal Court in Kansas denies the State of Tennessee a preliminary injunction against ATF "engaged in business" rule - excepting members of TFA, GOA, GOF, and VCDL.
On June 11, 2024, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, issued a preliminary injunction
against the ATF’s enforcement of its “engaged in business” rule. The
preliminary injunction protects individuals in Texas, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Utah, as well as the members of Gun Owners of America, Gun
Owners Foundation, Tennessee Firearms Association or
Virginia Citizens Defense League. Opinion, p.1 Significantly,
individuals in Tennessee who are not members of one of those 4
organizations are not protected at this time from the ATF’s enforcement
authority.
Then, 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.
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. Tennessee Firearms Association has increasingly invested in the
litigation opportunities over the last 5 years as it has become
increasingly and frustratingly obvious that the Tennessee Legislature
(under the complete control of individuals who identify as Republicans),
the Tennessee Governor (who also identifies as a Republican) and those
Republican members of Congress have failed repeatedly to take specific
and intentional action to restore our rights under the Second Amendment,
particularly when those rights are intentionally infringed by local,
state and federal agencies. You can help support this effort by
joining Tennessee Firearms Association, renewing your membership if it
has expired, making supplemental member donations that are necessary to help fund this litigation and/or making generous tax deductible donations to the Tennessee Firearms Foundation to help support that portion of its mission which includes public interest litigation.
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Tennessee Firearms Association Legislative Action Committee Annual Event
The TFALAC Annual Event is Saturday September 7, 2024. It will be held at the Farm Bureau Expo Center in Wilson County.
This year's keynote speaker is Pete Hegseth of Fox News who is also now a Tennessean. Other speakers include Congressman Mark Green and Erich Pratt, Sr., Vice President of Gun Owners of America.
Tickets and tables are available for a limited time with "early bird" pricing.
Sponsorships and vendor opportunities are also available now and since these are limited are first come, first serve.
Net proceeds from the TFALAC Annual Event are used to support pro-2nd Amendment candidates for the Tennessee Legislature (which sometimes means we are supporting primary challengers to incumbents who are not working to honor their oaths to protect our rights).
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