DOJ Repeals ‘Zero Tolerance’ Firearm Rules

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the policy had ‘unfairly targeted law-abiding gun owners.’

Handguns are displayed in an exhibition booth during the annual National Rifle Association meeting in Dallas on May 17, 2024. Shelby Tauber/Reuters

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Monday that it will repeal a “zero tolerance” policy that Second Amendment advocates said allowed authorities to revoke the licenses of gun dealers over paperwork errors.

Critics of the policy, known as the Enhanced Regulatory Enforcement Policy, said it allowed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to revoke gun dealers’ licenses for clerical errors that, prior to the policy, would have been considered minor infractions but under the zero tolerance policy were considered “willful” violations of the Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968.

On Jan. 28, 2022, the ATF issued a revised Administrative Action Policy (AAP) titled “Federal Firearms Administrative Policy and Procedures,” replacing a 2019 AAP.

The 2019 AAP stated that “ATF may revoke a federal firearms license under appropriate circumstances based on an initial set of violations.”

The 2022 AAP revised that language to reflect a “zero tolerance” approach: “ATF will revoke a federal firearms license, absent extraordinary circumstances on initial violations.”

While the 2019 policy noted that a “single, or even a few, inadvertent errors … may not amount to ‘willful’ failures,” the 2022 AAP warned that the bureau “does not have to establish a history of prior violations to establish willfulness.”

The zero tolerance policy put thousands of gun sellers out of business, according to one lawsuit.

The DOJ said it is repealing the policy and revisiting two other rules: one aimed at reclassifying certain firearms as short-barreled rifles, and another concerning the definition of “engaging in the business” of selling guns.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the policy, which the Biden administration enacted in 2021, had “unfairly targeted law-abiding gun owners” and “created an undue burden on Americans seeking to exercise their constitutional right to bear arms.”

“This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right,” Bondi said in a statement.

Acting ATF Director Kash Patel, who is also the FBI director, said the ATF will work with gun rights organizations, industry leaders, and legal experts to ensure that the policies protect the Second Amendment rights.

The move follows President Donald Trump’s Feb. 7 executive order directing the DOJ to review all Second Amendment-related policies, projects, rules, and government actions from January 2021 through January 2025.

Gun control advocacy group Brady criticized the DOJ’s move. The group’s president, Kris Brown, said the policy removal could potentially lead to an increase in violent crimes.

“By dismantling this policy, the Trump Administration is deliberately empowering these irresponsible gun dealers to operate without accountability, effectively arming criminals who will use these weapons to terrorize our communities,” Brown said in a statement.

Brown also accused the Trump administration of prioritizing the gun industry over the people’s safety, adding that the repeal “undermines years of progress in combating illegal firearms trafficking.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ and the White House for comment and did not receive a response by publication time.

The firearm industry welcomed the DOJ’s move to repeal the policy. Gun dealers have previously argued that they were subject to losing their federal firearms licenses over minor clerical errors on ATF forms due to the policy.

“This reckless policy throttled small businesses and drove many to shut down by threatening crippling administrative costs to fight against penalties for minor errors and infractions that were previously reconciled in good faith between ATF officials and law-abiding firearm retailers,” Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms industry, said in a statement.

Gun Owners of America (GOA), an organization that advocates for Second Amendment rights, said repealing the policy is “a key step” toward restoring Americans’ rights to bear firearms.

“This repeal and regulatory review of ATF’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ Policy sends a clear message that the era of Biden gun control is over,” Aidan Johnston, GOA director of federal affairs, said in a statement. “GOA is grateful for the administration’s commitment to restoring Second Amendment rights and standing with law-abiding gun owners nationwide.”

Michael Clements and Reuters contributed to this report.