The Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have announced plans to repeal or revise more than 30 federal gun regulations, completing a 50-year pendulum swing back to the Second Amendment's original, resulting in praise from one of the country's longest-standing gun-rights advocates. 

“This is why America elected Donald Trump. Freedom. ATF has no business making up rules, that’s what Congress does. Blanch, Dhillon, and Cekada are setting the right course," NRA Board Member and retired Army Lt. Col. Willes K. Lee told Just The News after the DOJ and ATF made the announcement last week.

The shift is not just another regulatory rollback, its a culminating chapter in a half-century arc that began with the ATF’s transformation from a Treasury tax-enforcement bureau (pre-1972, when it was still mostly whiskey and tobacco-focused) into the aggressive regulatory federal agency it became after the 1968 Gun Control Act and especially after moved from within the Treasury Department to the Justice Department after the 9-11 terror attacks. 

Among the new proposed changes is one to scrap a 2024 Biden White House rule that expanded background check requirements for gun sales at shows and other non-store venues. 

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche described the package as "the most comprehensive regulatory overhaul in the history" of the ATF saying it would cut red tape and restore clarity for law-abiding gun owners without weakening enforcement. 

For too long, regulations were written without any real understanding of how firearms businesses operate, how lawful gun owners handle their firearms, or what truly improves public safety,” Blanche also said.

Gun control activists have criticized the moves as potentially dangerous.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

“Four days after the nation watched gunfire break out at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the Trump administration’s answer is to gut commonsense gun safety laws and sabotage the only federal agency dedicated to keeping guns out of criminal hands,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press.

These actions follow mixed reviews during Trump's first term on Second Amendment issues. 

During that term, Trump took several actions that gun rights advocates praised as strengthening Second Amendment protections, including appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices—Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, and Amy Coney Barrett in 2020 – whose originalist judicial philosophies were expected to safeguard individual firearm ownership rights.

Trump also signed the Fix NICS Act (National Instant Checks System) into law in 2018 as part of a larger spending bill to improve the accuracy and completeness of the federal background check system by requiring better reporting from government agencies. 

However, he also pursued measures viewed negatively by many Second Amendment supporters, such as directing the ATF in 2018 to issue a regulation effectively banning bump stocks following the Las Vegas shooting (which took effect in 2019 and restricted a popular rifle accessory), publicly endorsing an increase in the minimum purchase age for semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21 after the 2018 Parkland shooting, and expressing support for red-flag laws that would allow courts to temporarily remove guns from individuals considered a risk, even without a criminal conviction.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Amanda Head serves as White House Correspondent for Just The News. You can follow her here.