Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, announces a multi-state lawsuit seeking to overturn a federal rule closing the “gun show loophole.” With Griffin are Deputy Solicitor General Dylan Jacobs and Solicitor General Nicholas Bronni. (Image: Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
Article by Mary Hennigan, Arkansas Advocate
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Moody dismissed a lawsuit challenging new rules that closed the “gun show loophole” for firearm sales and transferred the case to federal court in Kansas.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas on May 1. They were joined in the suit by 19 other state attorneys general.
Moody’s order on Thursday said that, without a plaintiff in the district or a clear declaration of potential harm, Arkansas had no standing to sue in the state’s Eastern District. His decision followed a hearing on May 17.
The case will be transferred to the Kansas court system, Moody said.
“I am disappointed by the court’s ruling and considering all options,” Griffin said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
The lawsuit claims the federal rule to close the gun show loophole regulation is illegal. Griffin said the process of how the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have gone about proposing changes bypasses the law.
Griffin referred to the federal rule change as a “combination of election year politics, of frustration [and] not getting what you want through Congress that would do it another way.”
The Biden administration finalized the federal rule in April. The rule has been touted as a significant step in gun regulation as it requires anyone who sells a gun for profit to register for a Federal Firearms License.
While the lawsuit argues the rule change will lead to fewer firearm sales and lost tax revenue, Moody found Arkansas’ examples of injuries “vague and speculative.”
“Unlike [other states] who submitted declarations to establish potential harm, Arkansas submitted no declaration and failed to call any witness at the preliminary injunction hearing to establish harm,” according to Moody’s ruling.
Moody declined to make any findings on the merit of the case.
Other states in the lawsuit are Iowa, Montana, Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy. This service is free to readers and other news outlets.
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