Score another victory for gun rights. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has reversed its “zero tolerance” policy created under the Biden administration to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms.
The policy allowed the ATF to revoke the licenses of firearms dealers who make common clerical errors on their paperwork. Several small gun shops have been forced out of business because of the rule.
Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works, joined with the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) in a lawsuit against the White House over the unconstitutional measure. The Biden administration capitulated before the lawsuit could be decided in the courts and reverted back to the previous policy, which only allows the ATF to revoke licenses for “willful” offenses, not small clerical errors, according to a press release issued by the TPPF.
The new enforcement guidance reinstates the decades-long understanding that an honest mistake – like writing “USA” in the field for “county” on a background check form – is not a willful violation of federal law. “For purposes of the regulatory provisions of the GCA, the terms ‘willful’ and ‘willfulness’ mean a purposeful disregard of, a plain indifference to, or a reckless disregard of a known legal obligation. Willfulness requires fact specific application of law,” says the new guidance.
Crucially, it also adds that “Not every repeat violation is per se willful. A single, or even a few, inadvertent errors in failing to complete forms may not amount to ‘willful’ failures even where the legal requirement to complete the forms was known.”
In light of his victory, Cargill has filed an unopposed motion to voluntarily dismiss the case, without prejudice, with the trial court.
TPPF celebrated the win in a post on X with a video of Cargill explaining the now-defunct policy and his lawsuit.
“This current administration is doing nothing but walking into gun stores, mom-and-pop gun stores, going after the simple little small, minor paperwork errors that people are making and trying to shut those gun stores down permanently who've been in existence for decades,” Cargill explained.
The gun dealer further argued that the ATF was stepping outside of its boundaries under the Gun Control Act.
It's impossible for anyone to do what we do and not make any mistakes at all. You get people that walk into the gun store to fill out a 4473, which is the firearms transaction record. There's a hundred ways a person can mess up this form, if not more than that. There are a hundred different inputs that you actually put on the form. Even customers make mistakes when it comes to their name, their middle name, or their first name, they reverse it. On that little box, it says county, they put country. That does not mean that that person is going to get handed a firearms, and they're not supposed to. They're not a prohibited person. And so their license should not get revoked just for that simple little minor mistake.
Our attorneys filed a lawsuit in 2022 on behalf of Austin gun store owner @michaeldcargill.
— Texas Public Policy Foundation (@TPPF) January 16, 2025
Faced with defeat, the ATF decided to back down.
Learn more about the case: https://t.co/nlUZdI5asn https://t.co/aq2PfUgOHn pic.twitter.com/1ZMpGqcMZN
This development means the ATF cannot be used to indirectly infringe on the Second Amendment, an endeavor President Joe Biden pursued since he knew he could not get his sweeping anti-gun agenda passed in Congress.
Cargill was also instrumental in getting the bump stock ban reversed as well, which illustrates why it is so important to fight back hard against any infringements on the right to keep and bear arms – even ones that might seem small. As we have seen, the anti-gunner left is hellbent on making it harder for people to defend themselves. Folks like Cargill show us that the anti-gunners can, and should, be beaten at every turn.