Trump’s Justice Department repeals one Biden-era gun policy and reviews others

Under U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Justice Department is dismantling Biden-era gun policies — though not under President Donald Trump's campaign promise timeline.

Trump said he would terminate "every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers" on his first day or first week in office. 

On Feb. 7, with that deadline passed, Trump signed an executive order directing Bondi to examine any federal agency-imposed regulations and "assess any ongoing infringements" to the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment, which guarantees people the right to keep and bear arms.

The order also instructed Bondi to "present a proposed plan of action to the President, through the Domestic Policy Advisor, to protect the Second Amendment rights of all Americans." 

Bondi has not publicly released such a "plan of action." Mark Oliva, managing director of public affairs with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry association, confirmed in an email to PolitiFact that the foundation has not yet seen a detailed plan fitting the description. 

The Justice Department did not reply to PolitiFact's request for a copy of the plan or the timeline for its publication. 

However, on April 8, Bondi released a memo announcing the creation of a "Second Amendment Enforcement Task Force" to create and execute "strategies to use litigation and policy to advance, protect, and promote" Second Amendment compliance. 

"The Second Amendment, which establishes the fundamental individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms, has been treated as a second-class right," the memo said. "It is the policy of this Department of Justice to use its full might to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens." 

The Justice Department's action so far pertains to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which oversees federal laws related to gun manufacturing, sale, ownership and other regulations. 

The ATF repealed its Enhanced Regulatory Enforcement Policy that called for ATF to enforce stricter guidelines on gun dealers and manufacturers and revoke their licenses if they committed certain violations, such as selling a gun without performing a buyer background check.  

The ATF reported that fewer than 1% of sellers qualified to lose their licenses since the policy's enactment in 2021. 

The Justice Department also announced in April that it would review ATF's policies on the minimum requirements for firearms dealers and scrutinize its regulations around the sale of "stabilizer braces" or "pistol braces," pistol accessories that can make them deadlier short-barreled assault rifles. 

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Biden administration's regulations of "ghost guns," unserialized firearms made from kits. The Biden-issued rules required weapons to have serial numbers and required dealers to conduct additional background checks on prospective buyers. The Justice Department has not taken any action surrounding these policies, but NPR reported that gun rights advocates see in the court's ruling an opening for changing the administrative policies.

Oliva also said that the Justice Department has restructured its positions in some firearm-related court cases that arose during President Joe Biden's term. 

The department in May agreed to settle a lawsuit with Rare Breed Triggers, a company that manufactures rapid-fire triggers for semi-automatic rifles. Prosecutors had argued that the devices, called "forced reset triggers," allow shooters to fire more than 900 rounds in a minute, making them especially deadly in mass shootings.

Under the settlement's terms, Rare Breed Triggers will be permitted to produce forced reset triggers only for rifles rather than handguns, and the Justice Department will no longer classify the products as "machine guns," which federal law more heavily restricts. 

The Trump administration has taken action to deconstruct some Biden-era gun policies, but it has yet to remove all firearm regulations enacted by the previous administration — and it's taken longer than the express timeline Trump promoted when running for office. Still, with several policy actions in motion, we rate this promise In the Works. 

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