In 2025, Justice Department officials toyed with the idea of prohibiting transgender people from owning firearms because they are “mentally ill”—a half-baked proposal that predictably alarmed all of the major gun rights groups.
While that idea apparently went nowhere, the Trump administration has steadfastly defended constitutionally dubious federal gun restrictions, including the National Firearms Act’s registration requirements, the Gun Control Act’s ban on gun possession by drug users, and the same law’s disarmament of people with nonviolent felony records. In all three cases, the NRA and other Second Amendment groups vigorously opposed the government’s arguments.
Legal positions aside, the Trump administration does not even consistently pay lip service to Second Amendment rights. Shortly after the president suggested that [Alex] Pretti was asking for trouble by carrying a gun, Jeanine Pirro, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, provoked more outrage from Second Amendment advocates.
If you “bring a gun” to the nation’s capital, Pirro warned during a Fox News interview in February, “you’re going to jail.” It does not matter whether “you have a license in another district” or whether “you’re a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else,” she said. “You bring a gun into this district, count on going to jail, and hope you get the gun back.”
— Jacob Sullum in Trump v. Second Amendment: The Administration Is Trying To Selectively Apply Gun Rights
Spanberger Amends Virginia Gun Ban Bill After DOJ Threatens Lawsuit.
ht* tps://www.ammoland.com/2026/04/spanberger-amends-virginia-gun-ban-bill-doj-lawsuit/
DOJ Reverse Course Again on Frames & Receivers Rule, New Rewrite Coming.
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have notified lawyers in multiple high-profile lawsuits that the agency will now move forward with a new rule defining firearm frames and receivers. This marks the latest reversal in a saga that began under the Biden administration and has continued under President Trump’s directives for regulatory review.
According to sources close to the litigation who spoke with Ammoland News on condition of anonymity, pressure from gun rights groups, industry stakeholders, and members of the highest levels of government, as well as internal deliberations, forced the DOJ to change its position once again.
Just days ago, following an initial request for a 90-day stay in proceedings to draft revisions, the government had signaled it would retain the existing Biden-era rule intact. Now, the DOJ has informed plaintiffs’ counsel in cases including VanDerStok v. Bondi and Defense Distributed v. Bondi that a new rule is forthcoming, and it has asked the courts to continue the stays while the rulemaking process unfolds.
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ht* tps://www.ammoland.com/2026/04/doj-reverse-course-again-on-frames-receivers-rule-new-rewrite-coming/