Pro-gun Americans are eagerly awaiting the release of the report President Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce related to “ongoing infringements of … Second Amendment rights.” Yet more so than this “assess[ment]” and “proposed plan of action,” what supporters of the right to keep and bear arms most need and want are actions to uphold their rights. On this count, the Trump administration is delivering.
I have already reported on the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s resumption of surplus U.S. Army M1911 pistol sales, which had been “suspended” under Biden-Harris. I’ve also mentioned how the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the nerve center for the prior administration’s anti-gun efforts, has gone dark.
Since then, the Trump administration has continued its support of America’s gun owners.
One of the first moves to be tied directly to President Trump’s Executive Order “Protecting Americans’ Second Amendment Rights” was the removal of former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s anti-gun propaganda effort, “Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America,” from the official Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) website.
That document was an escalation of the decades-long effort to funnel taxpayer money to the political project of undermining Second Amendment rights under the guise of “scientific inquiry.” Yet its prescription for healing the supposed pathology of “gun violence” was the same tired slate of oppressive gun-control laws firearm prohibitionists have wanted for decades. Its repeal signaled a significant policy shift toward refocusing on predatory criminals as the solution to violent crime.
Around the same time, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was recognizing the need to safeguard against overbroad application of “prohibited persons” laws against non-violent individuals swept up in categorical, lifetime bans on Second Amendment rights. These included those who have demonstrated prolonged and substantial rehabilitation.
Congress had offset this problem with a statutory provision that allowed for case-by-case consideration of petitions for firearm rights restoration. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) administered this program for years, but an appropriations rider in its annual funding bills has cut off its ability to spend money for this purpose since 1992.
Trump’s DOJ responded by issuing an interim final rule in March that revoked the delegation of this function, which is statutorily assigned to the attorney general, from ATF. This will allow a reassignment of that function to another DOJ component not subject to the rider, so consideration of applications can resume.
Another problem that has plagued American gun owners is the defiance of anti-gun jurisdictions to the U.S. Supreme Court’s revival of the Second Amendment. Each positive decision has been met with laws, regulations or policies that further restrict firearm-related rights. This oppression forces pro-gun groups to spend more resources vindicating each victory. Case in point: After the High Court affirmed a right to carry handguns in public for self-defense and held any necessary licenses could not be “may-issue” or used as prior restraints, numerous anti-gun jurisdictions made concealed-carry permits even more difficult to obtain.
In New York City, the process remains so difficult that hiring a lawyer is considered an unofficial requirement. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles County, applicants can wait more than 18 months for a decision on their permits.
Enter Trump’s DOJ, which, in March, launched an unprecedented “investigation into the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to determine whether it is engaging in a pattern or practice of depriving ordinary, law-abiding Californians of their Second Amendment rights” through excessively long delays in issuing permits to eligible applicants. As Attorney General Bondi said at the time: “The Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and under my watch, the Department will actively enforce the Second Amendment just like it actively enforces other fundamental constitutional rights.”
Amen to that!
More good news came with HHS announcing significant cuts to the “public health” workforce involved in anti-gun propaganda, part of what Secretary Robert F. Kennedy called an effort to rein in a “sprawling bureaucracy” and “radically improve our quality of service.” The effect of this restructuring on HHS’s supposed “gun-violence-research” efforts was best illustrated by the rage it evoked from prominent firearm-prohibition lobbies, with one even calling it a “devastating setback” to their cause.
And just as this column was headed to the presses, ATF formally announced the end of its “zero-tolerance” federal firearms license (FFL) inspection program, and a formal review of two Biden-era anti-gun administrative rules. See this month’s ILA Report for more information.
We all love to hear pro-gun promises from our elected officials. But reassuring talk is nothing without resolute action. When it comes to that, gun owners already have a lot to like about President Trump’s second term.
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