The Trump administration is pushing forward with what gun control advocates call the most aggressive firearm deregulation push in years, a sweeping dismantling of rules that would let people ship handguns through the mail, scrap Biden-era background check measures, and make it far harder to revoke licenses from gun dealers.
The scope of the changes is substantial. In late April, the ATF finalized or proposed nearly three dozen rules it framed as bringing regulations into the modern era. The moves represent a sharp reversal from the previous administration's efforts, including Biden's attempt to close what's known as the gun show loophole by expanding the definition of who qualifies as a gun dealer.
Gun rights advocates and industry players have embraced the rollback as a long-overdue correction. Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president of the National Sports Shooting Foundation, called it "the dawning of a new era." The ATF maintains the changes follow the president's directive to reexamine regulations and were not crafted to appease industry groups.
But critics view the package differently. Kris Brown, president of Brady: United Against Gun Violence, said the proposals read like "absolutely the gun industry's wish list," noting that industry leaders were present at the April announcement.
Postal service officials are separately proposing to allow handguns to be mailed under the same rules governing rifles and shotguns. The move follows a Justice Department legal opinion concluding that the roughly century-old ban on mailing handguns is unconstitutional. The National Rifle Association's lobbying wing argues the restriction creates "massive and needless headaches" for law-abiding owners. Opponents counter that the change could increase gun theft, circumvent background checks, undermine state law, and enable trafficking networks.
The specific deregulatory measures under review would ease firearm transport rules, eliminate the requirement that licensed sellers provide youth handgun safety notices, and modify standards that gun violence prevention groups fear will make it harder to punish dealers who break rules.
One of the most contentious proposals would narrow the definition of mental unfitness for gun ownership. The ATF's own regulatory language acknowledges the risk: "This risk may be minimal, or may be considerably greater (up to and including potential mass casualty events)."
Brown told reporters that Trump's ATF leadership understands the consequences. "They know it raises the risk of mass shootings. They know that violent crime is likely to go up. They know it's going to hinder law enforcement, and they do it anyway," she said.
A 2024 investigation by The Trace, however, found that Biden's gun dealer rule did not meaningfully boost enforcement actions against unlicensed sellers. That complicates claims about how effective the existing regulation has been.
Daniel Webster, a professor at Johns Hopkins' Center for Gun Violence Solutions, contends the proposed rules amount to a "green light" for the segment of the gun industry that profits from crime and violence. He also noted that the changes align with the Justice Department's goal of shrinking the team of federal inspectors who oversee licensed dealers.
The changes represent what Joseph Blocher, faculty director of Duke University's Center for Firearms Law, calls a "major, major, major pivot" from the previous four years of regulatory direction, though he noted that a shift of this kind was not unexpected given the change in administrations.
The full impact of these proposals remains uncertain until final rules are issued. But gun control advocates have made clear how they view the overall trajectory. Brown's assessment was stark: "We think it is going to be the worst delivery of regression in the history of the country in terms of gun violence prevention."
Author James Rodriguez: "The ATF's own language admitting these changes could trigger mass casualty events makes it hard to call this anything other than a calculated gamble that gun industry freedom outweighs public safety."
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