Alaska’s Attorney General Treg Taylor has joined a 20-state coalition of attorneys general in pushing back against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) proposed rule that would substantially increase the federal government’s ability to regulate firearm parts manufacturers.

The ATF proposal would expand the definition of a receiver, the part of a firearm that houses its firing mechanism. The attorneys general argue the rule would give the ATF unconstitutionally unrestrained discretion over which parts are subject to regulation.

A joint statement by the attorneys general says there is “no reason to believe Congress viewed it necessary to regulate each part of a firearm or receiver, or that it did not understand that a firearm receiver may be assembled from multiple parts.”

It adds that the ATF’s justification “turns on the idea that Congress should regulate consistent with new technological and manufacturing developments, or that Congress should have delegated ATF power to do so instead. Yet the language Congress chose makes clear that it did neither.”

The proposed expansion of regulatory control is a violation of law, the statement claims.

“The authority to create legislation is in Congress, not federal agencies,” said Attorney General Taylor on Aug. 23. “The law is clear that the ATF only has the authority to regulate complete firearms, and not firearm parts, under the Gun Control Act of 1968. The ATF cannot expand its authority through rulemaking.”

Taylor’s statement noted that the proposed rule unlawfully gives ATF “broad policymaking discretion” that is does not have.

Alaska joined the West Virginia- and Arizona-led comments with attorneys general in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and South Dakota.

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