The fight for the Second Amendment just scored a clear procedural victory as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) attempt to delay the legal challenge to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) controversial “engaged in the business” rule.
The decision keeps the legal challenge moving forward and sends a message that the executive branch cannot simply stall justice to bend the rules against law-abiding gun owners.
What Is the “Engaged in the Business” Rule?
The ATF’s “engaged in the business” regulation is a bureaucratic landmine that dramatically expands who the federal government can treat as a gun dealer.
Under the rule, even ordinary Americans — hobbyists, collectors, or people selling a few firearms they no longer want — could be forced to operate as federally regulated gun dealers if the ATF decides they’re “engaged in the business” of selling guns.
That means:
- expensive federal licenses,
- intrusive recordkeeping,
- background checks on private sellers (a de facto and complete registry of gun owners),
- and the threat of federal enforcement for the tiniest paperwork mistake.
It is one of the most dangerous administrative reinterpretations of federal law we’ve seen, and gun owners have been fighting it in court.
Fifth Circuit Won’t Let DOJ Push Off Justice
The DOJ asked the Fifth Circuit to delay — yet again — the case challenging this overreach.
The agency wanted more time before the court would consider the merits of the lawsuit, effectively letting the regulation stand unchallenged for months or even years.
The Fifth Circuit said “no.”
By refusing to grant the delay, the appeals court ensured the case will proceed without being buried by bureaucratic stall tactics. That’s a critical procedural victory that keeps pressure on ATF and preserves the opportunity for a substantive ruling.
Texas Gun Rights and NAGR Are Backing GOA’s Fight
While Gun Owners of America and Attorney General Ken Paxton have spearheaded the fight, Texas Gun Rights and its national affiliate, the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), filed an amicus brief in this case to make one thing clear:
When the federal government tries to redefine gun laws in ways that sweep in ordinary citizens, gun owners across the country — not just in Texas — will be harmed.
NAGR and Texas Gun Rights argued that the ATF’s rule exceeded the agency’s legal authority, infringed on Second Amendment freedoms, and would chill the rights of countless lawful Americans.
NAGR President Dudley Brown has been on the front lines of this fight for years, including traveling abroad to warn international bodies like the United Nations about the dangers of bureaucratic gun control through backdoor regulations.
Chris McNutt: “We Don’t Let Bureaucrats Rewrite the Law”
Texas Gun Rights President Chris McNutt issued a blistering statement on the Fifth Circuit’s refusal to delay:
“Today’s decision is a shot across the bow of the ATF and DOJ. We will not stand by while federal bureaucrats try to reclassify honest gun owners as criminals through regulatory trickery. The Second Amendment isn’t a suggestion they can reinterpret when it suits them. If the ATF wants to change the law, they need Congress to do it — not their own rulewriters. We applaud the Fifth Circuit for rejecting the delay, and we will continue this fight until the rights of law-abiding Americans are protected.”
The Fifth Circuit’s move does not decide the case on the merits, but it does stop the government from using delay as a defense.
Gun owners should understand what this ruling means:
The court recognizes that bureaucratic delays are not justice.
The case will move forward toward full judicial review.
Citizens and organizations like Texas Gun Rights and NAGR are not going away.
When the rights of ordinary Americans are at stake, the fight can’t be parked in legal purgatory.
And as long as agencies like ATF try to stretch their power beyond what Congress authorized, gun owners will be there pushing back — in court, in the legislature, and at the ballot box.
Because no one wins freedom through delay. Help us fuel the fight by chipping in below.
