The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a sweeping rollback of gun regulations, prompting criticism from gun control advocates who called the moves misguided and dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing we are doing today weakens law enforcement,\u201d the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said at a news conference where he described 34 planned changes in federal gun regulations. He also welcomed the newly confirmed director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Robert Cekada.<\/p>\n
The changes include rescinding a 2024 regulation from the Biden administration that sought to end what gun control advocates call the \u201cgun show loophole.\u201d That exemption allowed unlicensed dealers to sell firearms without performing a background check to see if the prospective buyer was prohibited by law from owning a gun.<\/p>\n
The administration also plans to rescind a 2023 rule that restricted pistol braces, an attachment that enables the shooter to hold the weapon against their shoulder like a rifle. A federal court had already struck down that rule.<\/p>\n
The changes are in keeping with the administration\u2019s promise to curtail gun regulation. In February 2025, President Trump signed an executive order telling the Justice Department \u201cto assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens.\u201d In December, the department established a section of the civil rights division focused on gun rights.<\/p>\n
John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, decried the Justice Department\u2019s moves on Wednesday, citing the gunman who tried to breach a black-tie gala at the Washington Hilton over the weekend as a reason for more stringent regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cFour days after the nation watched gunfire break out at the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner, the Trump administration\u2019s answer is to gut common-sense gun safety laws and sabotage the only federal agency dedicated to keeping guns out of criminal hands,\u201d Mr. Feinblatt said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Mr. Blanche insisted that losing such regulations posed no new safety risks for law enforcement or public safety, and were in keeping with the Trump administration\u2019s pledge to protect Second Amendment rights. He said more changes would follow.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cekada is only the third person to gain confirmation to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives since the position began requiring Senate approval in 2006. He has worked at the agency for more than 20 years, ascending to deputy director in April 2025, where he essentially oversaw its day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a sweeping rollback of gun regulations, prompting criticism from gun control advocates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13614,12338,13633,6238,13635,8,13636,1505,9,12793,797,13634,12339,7,1071,11259],"class_list":{"0":"post-22438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-biden","9":"tag-blanche","10":"tag-bureau-of-alcohol","11":"tag-donald-j","12":"tag-firearms-and-explosives","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-joseph-r-jr","15":"tag-justice-department","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-regulation-and-deregulation-of-industry","18":"tag-senate","19":"tag-tobacco","20":"tag-todd-attorney","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-trump","23":"tag-united-states-politics-and-government"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116491109103993504","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}