On Wednesday, more than half the state attorneys general in the country filed a series of three different lawsuits against the Biden Administration's new rules on private individuals making private gun sales. 
 
The controversial rule, which was debuted on April 11, is the most sweeping change to mandatory federal background checks on gun transfers in generations. Attorneys general in more than two dozen states have fired back on the pending rule by hauling the administration to court. 
 
The suits were filed roughly simultaneously in three different federal courts around the country, naming the ATF and U.S. Justice Department as defendants, as well as ATF Director Steven Dettelbach and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in their official capacity. 
 
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a 16-page complaint the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa. That court falls under the U.S. Eleventh Circuit. 
 
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, leading a multistate coalition including Louisiana, Missouri, and Utah, and listing several pro-gun groups as co-plaintiffs, filed a 72-page suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Amarillo, which falls under the U.S. Fifth Circuit. 
 
The third suit, spanning 51 pages, is by far the largest in terms of plaintiffs, filed by Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach on behalf of 19 other state attorneys general in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock, which falls under the U.S. Eighth Circuit. Besides Arkansas and Kansas, the co-plaintiffs include AGs from Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Besides the Eight Circuit, these states fall in the U.S. First, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits. 
 
The suits, in general, argue that the new restrictions go beyond the authority granted to the ATF by Congress to interpret gun law while holding that the rule itself is a flagrant violation of the Second Amendment. As such, they ask for injunctive relief to halt the federal government from enforcing the rule while the challenge plays out in the courts. By blitzing the courts from three different directions, the cases set up multiple avenues to reach the Supreme Court if needed. 
 
"Yet again, Joe Biden is weaponizing the federal bureaucracy to rip up the Constitution and destroy our citizens’ Second Amendment rights," said Paxton. "This is a dramatic escalation of his tyrannical abuse of authority. With today’s lawsuit, it is my great honor to defend our Constitutionally-protected freedoms from the out-of-control federal government."
 
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