President Trump is wrapping up his first 100 days of his second administration. Having taken four years to watch the destruction direction of the previous administration, he had a few different ideas to implement. While most of that action is outside my area of interest, a few had to do with firearms.
Rights Restoration
As discussed in a previous newsletter, the administration has taken action to allow federal rights restoration for the first time in over thirty years. This is a welcomed opportunity for many to seek the return of their constitutional rights.
The Attorney General has promised further regulations implementing this area of law, and we can expect that some new structure will be given to how a person can apply to have their rights restored. For now, anyone can apply and no specific requirements have been published.
FFL Audits
The Biden Administration infamously implemented a ‘zero tolerance’ policy for willful violations of the Gun Control Act by FFLs. Sounding good, what this meant in practice is that a single mistake could cost a firearm dealer their license. I had clients who had been in business for years, decades facing loss of their license for failing to spot a concealed weapons permit out of date by a month.
Gun shops were getting in trouble because customers had written the current date when answering their birthdate. Yet, the ATF allowed the same individuals to choose “other” when identifying their sex . . . The whole process had become a mockery because a person wasn’t expected to know his own sex, but yet could be crucified for not knowing the date.
The Trump Administration has returned to the decades of precedence in place before Biden where we understand that people are human and make mistakes. No longer is a wrong date, or failure to record some part of an address, or to miss one of seventeen check boxes justification for a business death sentence. Instead, mistakes are pointed out, education is given, and the process is improved naturally as you would with anyone who you want to see succeed. This is a welcome change and likely means your favorite shop is going to be around a bit longer.
Reconsidering the US Position in Law Suits
President Trump has directed the Attorney General to assess the status of US Firearm laws, regulations and lawsuits and to reconsider its position in all litigation involving firearms. And after Bruen and Rahimi there are plenty of firearm laws at stake in litigation.
Some have speculated that the Trump Administration will simply stop defending the firearm statutes it doesn’t like. Why is this important? Because under Bruen, once a plaintiff shows that conduct is within the purview of the 2nd Amendment, it is the duty of the Government to overcome the constitutional protection by showing the law is within the historically allowed limits of regulation. If the Government refuses to participate, this would leave the courts with no historical precedent to consider resulting in a default win for the plaintiff.
In some instances, this has already happened where the Government was lazy and did not provide good context for the courts. A systematic refusal to defend gun laws could create tremendous precedence for the 2nd Amendment.
What’s Next? Changes at Congress
Trump is looking at Congress to get his one Big, Beautiful Bill through. And many in Congress are scrambling to see what can be added to such a bill to change laws. For firearms, we see the following ideas being pushed: Universal reciprocity of the right to carry firearms; removing suppressors from the National Firearms Act; and reining in the ATF.
Will these get through? It’s a tough road with slim majorities and the filibuster to overcome. Progress is not likely, but it is more possible now than it has been since Ronald Reagan was president.