The Department of Justice asked the Fifth Circuit on April 16 to dismiss its appeal of a preliminary injunction blocking the ATF's Biden-era "Engaged in the Business" rule — effectively abandoning the federal government's effort to treat a wide range of private firearm sales as regulated commercial activity requiring dealer licensing and mandatory background checks.

Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation, alongside attorneys general from Texas, Louisiana, Utah, and Mississippi, had secured the original preliminary injunction at the district court level in June 2024. The rule, finalized under the Biden ATF, broadened the statutory definition of who is "engaged in the business" of dealing firearms so extensively that even a single private sale — not a licensed dealer, not a commercial operation, just a private citizen selling a personally owned firearm — could have triggered mandatory federal registration and background-check requirements under the Gun Control Act. In practice, the rule created federal compliance exposure for casual peer-to-peer gun sales and informal transfers of the kind that have always been legal under federal law.

The Biden White House had publicly described the rule as a mechanism to bring the United States "as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation." Gun-rights organizations framed it as an administrative end-run around Congress, and federal courts agreed enough to block enforcement before the rule took full effect. The Fifth Circuit had already rejected a DOJ request to slow-walk proceedings on the case earlier this year, signaling that the appeals court was not inclined to give the government extra runway on the litigation.

Bearing Arms first reported the Fifth Circuit filing on April 16. Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America, said the DOJ's decision is "a massive step towards fulfilling President Trump's campaign promise to gun owners to end this Biden rule." The preliminary injunction protecting GOA plaintiffs and the participating states remains in force while the case returns to district court.

The surrender of the appeal marks a sharp reversal from the DOJ's posture as recently as September 2025, when the department declined to withdraw its defense of the rule despite mounting pressure from gun-rights groups. GOA says it will press for a permanent order vacating the Engaged in the Business rule entirely. The next meaningful milestone will be whether the DOJ concedes the merits in district court or attempts to narrow its defense of the rule's scope.