The Justice Department is considering loosening a slate of gun regulations as it seeks to bolster support from ardent Second Amendment advocates, according to three people familiar with the changes who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been made public.
Some of the changes are expected to ease restrictions on the private sale of guns and loosening regulations around shipping firearms.
Other changes to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regulations under consideration would change the types of firearms that can be imported and make licensing fees refundable. Officials are also expected to change the form required to purchase guns to have applicants list their biological sex at birth. The current form asks applicants to list their sex.
Federal officials had considered announcing the changes to coincide with the National Shooting Sports Foundation gun trade show in Las Vegas, which begins on Tuesday. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is scheduled to speak at the annual show. The NSSF SHOT is one of the nation’s largest firearm trade shows, and Justice Department officials in both Democratic and Republican administrations have regularly attended it.
But officials are still finalizing their new regulations and the timing of the announcement, the people familiar with the matter said.
The back-and-forth over the rollout of the new gun rules highlights the Justice Department’s challenges as it seeks to placate a part of the president’s base who believes that the administration has not been aggressive enough in easing firearm restrictions — while also preserving the law enforcement capabilities of ATF, which some gun rights advocates have sought to abolish.
The Trump administration has installed prominent gun right advocates in senior political positions, and the president has allied himself with conservative advocacy groups, such as Gun Owners of America. The administration has pushed to slash about 5,000 law enforcement officers from ATF, cutting the number of inspectors who ensure gun sellers are in compliance with federal laws.
But some gun rights advocates have publicly expressed disappointment with Attorney General Pam Bondi, who as attorney general of Florida supported gun restrictions after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland.
Bondi and the Trump administration have faced criticism for not going as far as some lawmakers and gun rights advocates have demanded.
“The Biden Administration waged war against the Second Amendment, but that era has come to an end under Attorney General Bondi, who has led the Justice Department’s effort to protect the Second Amendment through litigation, civil rights enforcement, regulatory reform, and by ending abusive enforcement practices,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement.
“Whenever law-abiding gun owners’ constitutional rights are violated, the Trump Administration will fight back in defense of freedom and the Constitution.”
Because ATF crafts regulations based on its interpretation of laws passed by Congress, Justice Department officials are allowed to amend its rules, though any changes risk legal challenges. ATF is part of the Justice Department, responsible for regulating the sales and licensing of firearms and working with local law enforcement to solve gun crimes. Federal and local law enforcement officials tout ATF’s gun tracing capabilities with helping to combat violent crime.
In the first months of the Trump administration, the Justice Department proposed merging the Drug Enforcement Administration with ATF — a move that ATF’s backers feared would leave the agency powerless. Opponents of ATF, meanwhile, feared that the merger would give the agency too much power. The merger plans have not come to fruition and, instead, the Trump administration in November quietly nominated a respected ATF veteran to lead the agency.
The nominee, Robert Cekada, is scheduled to have his hearing next month, and administration officials are worried about how the announcement of the new regulations could boost or hurt his nomination chances, according to one person familiar with the nomination process. Announcing the loosening of regulations ahead of his nomination hearing could risk the support of moderate Republicans, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues.
Winning confirmation to serve as ATF director is notoriously difficult. Only two people have won Senate approval as director since the position began requiring Senate confirmation in 2006. During his first term, President Donald Trump had to pull a nominee, Chuck Canterbury, the former head of the national Fraternal Order of Police, because some conservative Republicans thought he would restrict gun rights.
Trump had originally tapped FBI Director Kash Patel to simultaneously serve as ATF director. The Washington Post reported at the time that Patel never showed up to ATF headquartersand had scarce interaction with staff. The administration replaced Patel in early April with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who holds the two roles simultaneously. Cekada has been running the day-to-day operations of the ATF since the ousting of the second-in-command at ATF in April.
The nomination of Cekada was considered a win for Bondi, who had wanted a law enforcement veteran leading the agency. Some Second Amendment groups had pushed for an advocate at the head of the organization.
Bondi pushed out ATF’s longtime general counsel and replaced her with a political appointee, Robert Leider — a former law professor who believes in a strict interpretation of the Second Amendment and has publicly written about how ATF too heavily regulates firearms.
The Post reported last summer that the U.S. DOGE Service sent staff to ATF with the goal of revising or eliminating at least 47 rules and gun restrictions — an apparent reference to Trump’s status as the 47th president — by July 4, according to multiple people with knowledge of the efforts. Those plan hit roadblocks, in part, because the political appointees failed to realize how complicated and legally cumbersome it is to amend regulations, according to one person familiar with the process.
In addition to the regulatory changes, Leider and his team have been working to shrink the legally mandated 4473 Form that most buyers are required to fill out when purchasing a firearm, making it quicker to read and fill out the paperwork required to purchase and sell firearms.
In December, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division, announced creation of a new Second Amendment group within her division focused on expanding gun rights. In its first days, the newly created group filed a lawsuit challenging an assault weapon ban in D.C.
It’s unclear how much support Dhillon’s new group has received. Top Justice Department officials have not fully backed it, in part because Congress needs to approve the creation of a new section within the Civil Rights Division, according to people familiar with the group.
Dhillon so far has not hired many attorneys with legal expertise in the Second Amendment to work in the group, the people said. Instead, she has used existing attorneys within the Civil Rights Department to staff some of the group’s projects.
Top Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee have questioned the creation and legality of Dhillon’s group.
“Since President Trump took office, you have decimated the Division’s nonpartisan workforce and changed the Division’s enforcement priorities to serve the President’s agenda in lieu of our federal civil rights laws,” Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) wrote in a letter to Dhillon this month. “The creation of the Second Amendment Section is another example of this profound retreat from the core mission of the Civil Rights Division.”
Last week, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion saying that a federal ban on mailing firearms through Postal Service is unconstitutional. An OLC opinion is not binding, but it provides legal guidance across the federal government on how federal prosecutors view laws and signals the Justice Department’s future stances in court.
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