The Department of Justice repealed three regulations against the Second Amendment. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that the repeals include the “stabilizing brace” and the definition of “Engaged in the Business” as a “dealer in firearms” pushed by the Biden administration. Blanche also explained that the Trump DOJ would shift another regulation that the previous White House administration used to go after “bump stocks.”
“The Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” Blanche said upon announcing the new policies. “This Department of Justice is ending the weaponization of federal authority against law-abiding gun owners. We will continue to vigorously defend their rights as the Constitution demands.”
The regulatory shift comes as the Senate confirmed Robert Cekada as the new Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). “ATF’s mission is to protect public safety and enforce the law – and these reforms reflect our commitment to doing that through regulations that are clear, legally sound, and narrowly tailored to that purpose,” he said, adding, “Our enforcement focus from here on out is on willful violators and criminal actors, not inadvertent compliance issues by responsible owners and licensees.”
According to repeal notices on the ATF website, the agency is “proposing to formally rescind regulatory changes made in 2023 regarding firearms equipped with stabilizing braces.” The proposal “removes regulatory language that has been largely unenforceable, restoring the regulatory definitions to be consistent with the underlying statutory definitions.”
Discussing definitions for “Engaged in the Business” as a firearms dealer, the ATF said the “rescinded changes have not produced the anticipated outcomes in terms of Federal Firearms License applications, administrative licensing actions, civil forfeitures, or other anticipated enforcement metrics.”
The ATF is also “removing two sentences from its three regulatory definitions of ‘machine gun’ that previously incorporated bump stocks into those definitions,” a repeal notice explained.
