Gun Rights in the Age of Trump

Can one be said to enjoy a God-given right to life and liberty if there exists no complementary right to defend it? This much was clear to the Founders and most of their immediate successors, and so the Second Amendment stood as America’s only nationwide firearm “law” for the first 146 years of the Republic.

But all good things must come to an end, as the saying goes. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the other progressive Democrats who controlled both chambers of Congress figured out a way around those pesky safeguards in the Constitution. They couldn’t attack gun rights head-on, but in 1934, FDR signed into law the National Firearms Act (NFA), regulating the ownership of certain types of firearms (and accessories) as well as the manufacture and sale thereof. Ostensibly a tax bill, as that’s the only power to regulate firearms Congress has, it technically kept the right in place while making it so expensive to exercise that most Americans were simply priced out.

Trump Targets Gun Control

For 91 years, the NFA stood as a legitimized, court-sanctioned infringement on American gun rights. Even now, it remains, to some degree – as do the various updates to it, like the Gun Control Act of 1964, the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986, and the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993. But through the so-called big, beautiful bill, President Trump and Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress managed to gut the NFA, at least in part, by reducing the $200 tax to transfer a short-barreled rifle (SBR), short-barreled shotgun (SBS), or silencer to $0*.

Yes, those who hope to own such an item must still apply through the ATF and be placed on the registry – for now – but the fee is gone, and that justified the lawsuit immediately filed by a coalition of gun rights advocacy groups to remove these items from the law entirely.

More than a dozen presidents – six of whom were Republicans – have served between FDR and Trump, yet in all their years in office, none accomplished for the right to keep and bear arms what Trump has achieved in his first half-year back in office.

And that isn’t all. The Supreme Court justices appointed in his first term brought about one of the most impactful rulings for gun rights in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. The 6-3 decision established a new framework for evaluating gun laws, requiring them to be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulations. In short, firearm regulations are now harder to justify constitutionally.

Numerous cases challenging the various federal rules are already winding their way through the court system because of it – and now the big, beautiful bill brings another.

Second Amendment for All

Following through on a presidential directive from the beginning of the year, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday, July 18, yet another historic first. While the NFA regulated machine guns and certain other items through tax, the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) ended the nation’s 180-year streak of not restricting who could own guns of any kind. Since ’68, however, convicted felons, drug addicts, minors, and those deemed mentally incompetent have been prohibited from owning firearms. There was, of course, a way to undo it – again, even anti-gun Democrats controlling the presidency and both houses of Congress haven’t been able to ban guns entirely yet.

One of the mechanisms for restoring gun rights is executive clemency – the pardon. The president can clear federal crimes, while governors handle state charges. But there was another way, as well.

Initially, felons could apply for relief with the secretary of the Treasury. In 1968, that authority was delegated to the commissioner of the IRS, and it went to the newly formed ATF in 1975. In 2002, the law was changed, transferring the power from the Treasury secretary to the attorney general, who then, a year later, delegated it back to the ATF.

However, since 1992, Congress has included a rider in the annual ATF appropriations that forbids the agency from using any of its money to investigate or act on those applications.

On March 20 of this year, though, AG Bondi announced a new rule reclaiming this authority. Last Friday, she submitted the rule to the Federal Register.

“For too long, countless Americans with criminal histories have been permanently disenfranchised from exercising the right to keep and bear arms—a right every bit as constitutionally enshrined as the right to vote, the right to free speech, and the right to free exercise of religion—irrespective of whether they actually pose a threat," Bondi said in Friday’s statement. "No longer."

Soon, those who have had their right to keep and bear arms suppressed by the GCA will be able to apply to the attorney general’s office to have their rights restored – no pardon needed.

Changing Tides for Gun Rights

From gutting the NFA and working around the GCA to inspiring and backing Second Amendment challenges to state firearm regulations across the nation and cutting both regulations and jobs at the ATF, the Trump administration and today’s GOP trifecta are changing the tides of gun rights in America. And there’s no indication they plan to stop anytime soon. What’s to expect next is anyone’s guess – but it’s an exciting time for anyone who enjoys the right to keep and bear arms.

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*Update: As previously reported by Liberty Nation News, the original House-passed and final versions of the BBB differed on the NFA issue due to the ruling of Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough. The first version removed SBRs, SBSs, and silencers from the NFA entirely, meaning they could be purchased just like any other firearm without the owner having to get special permission or be placed on a federal gun registry. For more in-depth information on that specific topic, check out these stories from LNN on the issue:

Trump Gets His July 4 Wish: The Big Beautiful Bill Becomes Law

The Big Beautiful Bill and What Could Have Been for Gun Owners

NFA Under Fire: Is the BBB a Gun Rights Game Changer?