While campaigning in 2024, Donald Trump promised to defend the Second Amendment.
Gun rights advocates say the president has kept that promise in the first 100 days of his second term, and that he began fulfilling it on Jan. 21, the day after he was inaugurated.
That’s when the website for President Joe Biden’s White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention went dark. The office was a crown jewel of Biden’s gun control plan, along with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which he signed on June 25, 2022.
Biden touted the law as the most significant gun legislation signed in 30 years. It expanded background checks, provided funding for mental health services and community-based violence prevention initiatives, and added to the roster of people restricted from owning firearms.
Under Vice President Kamala Harris, the office was staffed with veterans of the gun control movement whose mandate was to “prevent gun violence and save lives.”
The head of the gun control organization Brady, formerly the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, criticized the office’s closure online.
“The White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention wasn’t about politics – it was about strengthening the government’s ability to protect Americans ... from guns,” Brady President Kris Brown wrote.
Gun rights activists are especially interested in how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) will operate under a second Trump administration. Many say the agency is too powerful.
In one of its most popular decisions among gun rights activists, Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) rescinded the ATF’s Enhanced Regulatory Enforcement Policy, also known as the “Zero Tolerance Policy,” on April 7.
Critics of the policy say it allowed ATF inspectors to revoke gun dealers’ federal firearms licenses for clerical errors that were previously considered minor infractions. The zero-tolerance policy defined these errors as “willfully” violating the law.
Gun Owners of America (GOA) filed a lawsuit claiming the ATF used the policy to bully gun dealers into ceasing operations.
The Epoch Times reached out to the ATF for comment and did not receive a response by publication time.
GOA stated that the number of dealers with federal licenses who stopped operating after a compliance inspection without a negative finding jumped from 96 in 2020 to 789 in 2021, after the policy went into effect. It increased to 1,037 in 2022, a rise of more than 1,000 percent from 2020.
GOA leadership celebrated the developments.
In an email to its members, Brady accused the administration of adopting dangerous policies.
“By dismantling this [Zero Tolerance] policy, the Trump Administration is essentially signaling to irresponsible gun dealers that they can now break the law without consequence,” the email stated.
The Brady email also criticizes the administration for failing to appoint a full-time director for the ATF.
“The ATF needs permanent, dedicated leadership committed to public safety, not gun industry profits. Without proper leadership, the American people will ultimately be the ones to suffer,” the email stated.
FBI Director Kash Patel was appointed acting ATF director in February and was removed from the job shortly after. He was replaced by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.
The future of the ATF appears to be uncertain. There have been reports that it may merge with the Drug Enforcement Agency, though nothing definitive has been announced.
Gun control proponents accuse Trump of taking other actions under the guise of fiscal responsibility.
Cuts also have been made to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services, which study and gather data on violent crime involving guns and its impact on society.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that pulling violence intervention workers out of communities will lead to an immediate surge in violence—people will die,” Paul Carrillo, vice president of the Giffords Center, wrote.
They included $2 million for “national listening sessions of individuals with lived experience,” $695,000 for “a parallel convergent mixed-methods case study research design to assess the efficacy of police departments’ LGBTQ liaison services,” and $250,000 for “working with incarcerated transgender individuals providing gender affirming care to including housing in gender appropriate facilities.”
During his campaign, Trump also promised to sign a national reciprocity bill if it crossed his desk. It would require states to honor concealed firearms permits of other states.
Permit holders would have to comply with all gun laws of the state they are in. For example, if a state prohibits guns in churches, they could not carry there even if their home state allows it.
“All of those laws and restrictions and conditions would be unchanged and would still be in effect,” Amy Swearer, an attorney and a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times.
Opponents, however, stated that police would have to learn the gun laws of all 50 states.
David LaBahn, president and CEO of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, said his organization opposes the legislation for this and other reasons.
An Oklahoma resident in New York would be under Oklahoma law rather than New York law, he said. This would require New York law enforcers to know the law in all other states.
“If there’s reciprocity, the New York laws don’t apply, your Oklahoma laws would apply,” LaBahn told The Epoch Times.
A reciprocity bill is in Congress, but it appears to have little chance of making it to Trump’s desk.
Second Amendment advocates say they are generally pleased with the president’s actions so far.
“The revocation of the ‘zero tolerance’ policy is a very big course correction that President Trump’s administration has delivered,” Mark Oliva, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said in an email to The Epoch Times.
“The firearm industry sees that President Trump is keeping his promises.”
Gun control groups did not respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times by publication time.
