Trump’s DOJ, ATF unveils landmark package aimed to protect Second Amendment rights
—
WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Trump Administration took further action to protect Second Amendment rights on Wednesday.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Acting Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Director Robert Cekada held a news conference to unveil a “landmark package” of proposed and final gun regulations for the DOJ and ATF.
They announced that the vote on the package passed on Wednesday afternoon, releasing 34 notices of final and proposed rulemaking following regulations.
Blanche said the package “reduces unnecessary burdens on lawful gunowners and licensed businesses, it eliminates ambiguity and it helps prevent the kind of confusion that, in the past, and not that distant past, led to inconsistent and sometimes unfair enforcement.”
He also emphasized that the new package aligns with Supreme Court precedent to streamline guidelines in a way that is easier for gun owners to understand and follow.
“The Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” said U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “This Department of Justice is ending the weaponization of federal authority against law-abiding gun owners. We will continue to vigorously defend their rights as the Constitution demands.”
Full summaries of the rules are available on ATF’s website.
The signing represents the end of the agencies’ comprehensive regulatory review, following President Donald Trump’s signing of Executive Order 14206 in February 2025.
Trump’s executive order was aimed at ending what he described as “the federal government’s violation of Americans’ fundamental Second Amendment right to protect themselves, their families, and their freedoms.”
The order halted existing policies designed to restrict the Second Amendment, while also directing the Attorney General, which was Pam Bondi at the time, to complete a review of all orders, regulations, guidance, plans and other actions made by the Biden Administration related to firearms. In April 2025, Bondi created a “Second Amendment Enforcement Task Force.”
It also instructed the Attorney General to deliver a plan of action to Trump to “eliminate all infringements” on Second Amendment rights.
The Biden Administration has flagrantly sought to eliminate Second Amendment rights. Among other infringements, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was weaponized to end the livelihoods of law-abiding small business owners in an effort to limit Americans’ ability to acquire firearms,” a White House fact sheet on the order read.
The administration reported that the “zero tolerance” or “enhanced regulatory enforcement policy” put in place under Biden led to a nearly six-fold increase in enforcement actions against Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL’s). They described many of the FFL’s as mom-and-pop shop small business who “made innocent paperwork errors.”
Firearms manufacturers have also been de-banked or denied services, the administration said, as a result of making the guns.
In actions President Trump took immediately upon signing the executive order, he removed the United States from the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty to “protect Americans from the threat of global regulations of conventional firearms.” The Department of Justice also narrowed the definition of “fugitive from justice” to more specific guidelines to determine who is prohibited from purchasing a firearm.
In President Trump’s first term, he designated the firearms industry “essential” to stop gun stores, shooting ranges and ammunition dealers from being shut down during the pandemic.
This week, the Senate invoked cloture on Trump’s nomination of Cekada as head of ATF in a bipartisan vote.
