Calling it an unnecessary burden on Floridians and their constitutional gun rights, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a lawsuit against a new Biden administration rule that allows the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to mandate that thousands of law-abiding gun owners in the state to register as dealers and navigate a complex bureaucracy to simply buy, sell or trade firearms with friends and neighbors.

The AG’s office says the policy is loaded with red tape and costs and is the latest attempt from the Biden White House to regulate gun owners wrongfully.

“For decades, federal law has made a distinction between firearms dealers, who must purchase a federal license to sell firearms, and private individuals making private sales, a protected activity,” said Moody.

How much authority does the ATF have?

ATF and its special agents have broad authority to investigate federal firearms violations, make arrests, and execute search warrants. ATF can revoke the licenses of dealers who violate gun laws and regulations.

Though the ATF has broad authority, AG Moody says this new rule is unlawful and the government agency does not have authority to promulgate it because it’s rulemaking authority is carefully circumscribed.

The ATF was formed in 1886 as part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which was also involved during Prohibition in the 1920’s and 30’s.

In 1930, it became part of the Justice Department. In the early 1950s, the government agency was given the additional responsibility of enforcing federal tobacco tax laws. At this

In 1968, with the passage of the Gun Control Act, the agency changed its name again, this time to the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division of the IRS and first began to be referred to by the initials “ATF”.