"Every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated on my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day."
President Donald Trump's administration has continued to overturn policies set under his predecessor, Joe Biden, generally expanding rights for gun owners and the gun industry.
In January, pro-gun advocates criticized Trump and other top officials for their comments seemingly justifying immigration officers' fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a legally permitted gun owner. It marked the first public sign that gun industry advocates were taking issue with a Trump administration stance.
Generally, however, the federal government under Trump has been issuing regulations favorable to pro-gun advocates.
In addition to the policies noted in previous updates of our promise tracking, the Trump administration took the following steps in second half of 2025 and early 2026:
It created a new office in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to challenge local laws and policies that limit gun rights, guided by a February 2025 executive order;
The Interior Department issued an order that opens land managed by the department to hunting unless there's a specific reason not to do so, and that limits bans on lead ammunition on its lands;
The Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a preliminary finding that concluded certain large banks had discriminated against companies that make firearms. The office's report followed an executive order by the president;
The Commerce Department published a final regulation making it easier for U.S. firearms companies to be able to export overseas, a rule that overturned a preliminary one from Biden's presidency that was stricter.
Mark Oliva, managing director of public affairs with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, told PolitiFact that he expects additional regulatory changes in the coming months.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump specifically said he would "terminate" every Biden-era regulation "on my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day." He hasn't acted that quickly, but he has moved to modify or scrap numerous gun-related policies in the first year of his second term, with more actions on gun policy expected to come. We rate the promise In the Works.
Under U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Justice Department is dismantling Biden-era gun policies — though not under President Donald Trump's campaign promise timeline.
Trump said he would terminate "every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers" on his first day or first week in office.
On Feb. 7, with that deadline passed, Trump signed an executive order directing Bondi to examine any federal agency-imposed regulations and "assess any ongoing infringements" to the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment, which guarantees people the right to keep and bear arms.
The order also instructed Bondi to "present a proposed plan of action to the President, through the Domestic Policy Advisor, to protect the Second Amendment rights of all Americans."
Bondi has not publicly released such a "plan of action." Mark Oliva, managing director of public affairs with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry association, confirmed in an email to PolitiFact that the foundation has not yet seen a detailed plan fitting the description.
The Justice Department did not reply to PolitiFact's request for a copy of the plan or the timeline for its publication.
However, on April 8, Bondi released a memo announcing the creation of a "Second Amendment Enforcement Task Force" to create and execute "strategies to use litigation and policy to advance, protect, and promote" Second Amendment compliance.
"The Second Amendment, which establishes the fundamental individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms, has been treated as a second-class right," the memo said. "It is the policy of this Department of Justice to use its full might to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens."
The Justice Department's action so far pertains to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which oversees federal laws related to gun manufacturing, sale, ownership and other regulations.
The ATF repealed its Enhanced Regulatory Enforcement Policy that called for ATF to enforce stricter guidelines on gun dealers and manufacturers and revoke their licenses if they committed certain violations, such as selling a gun without performing a buyer background check.
The ATF reported that fewer than 1% of sellers qualified to lose their licenses since the policy's enactment in 2021.
The Justice Department also announced in April that it would review ATF's policies on the minimum requirements for firearms dealers and scrutinize its regulations around the sale of "stabilizer braces" or "pistol braces," pistol accessories that can make them deadlier short-barreled assault rifles.
In March, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Biden administration's regulations of "ghost guns," unserialized firearms made from kits. The Biden-issued rules required weapons to have serial numbers and required dealers to conduct additional background checks on prospective buyers. The Justice Department has not taken any action surrounding these policies, but NPR reported that gun rights advocates see in the court's ruling an opening for changing the administrative policies.
Oliva also said that the Justice Department has restructured its positions in some firearm-related court cases that arose during President Joe Biden's term.
The department in May agreed to settle a lawsuit with Rare Breed Triggers, a company that manufactures rapid-fire triggers for semi-automatic rifles. Prosecutors had argued that the devices, called "forced reset triggers," allow shooters to fire more than 900 rounds in a minute, making them especially deadly in mass shootings.
Under the settlement's terms, Rare Breed Triggers will be permitted to produce forced reset triggers only for rifles rather than handguns, and the Justice Department will no longer classify the products as "machine guns," which federal law more heavily restricts.
The Trump administration has taken action to deconstruct some Biden-era gun policies, but it has yet to remove all firearm regulations enacted by the previous administration — and it's taken longer than the express timeline Trump promoted when running for office. Still, with several policy actions in motion, we rate this promise In the Works.
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President Donald Trump has begun the process of overturning gun-related policies issued under his predecessor, Joe Biden.
As a candidate, Trump said, "Every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated on my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day."
Trump signed an executive order Feb. 7 that said within 30 days, the attorney general "shall examine all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies … to assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens, and present a proposed plan of action to the President."
The order specified that all presidential orders from Biden's tenure and Biden-era rules from the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would be reviewed. The order also requires examining stances the federal government has taken in ongoing Second Amendment cases.
The order is "widely expected" to affect several policies, said Mark Oliva, managing director of public affairs with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry association. According to Oliva, they include:
ATF's 2021 "zero-tolerance policy," which requires revoking gun dealers' licenses if they have committed one of five violations, including selling a gun without a background check or falsifying business records. Gun rights supporters have said this has caused an unnecessary spike in revocations.
ATF's "engaged-in-the-business" rule, which defines what constitutes a firearms business, including that someone "repetitively resells or offers for resale firearms" within 30 days after purchase and that "posts firearms for resale, including through the Internet" or repeatedly rents "a table or space at a gun show." Critics have said that the rule has affected nonprofessional firearms collectors.
ATF's "pistol brace rule," which addresses stabilizing devices for pistols, an accessory that can be helpful for shooters with disabilities. The rule classifies braces that reach the shoulder as short-barrel rifles, which critics have said imposes undue burdens, including special registration requirements, longer waiting periods and higher tax rates.
ATF's "frame and receiver rule," which tightens requirements on guns assembled from kits, including requirements for manufacturer licensing, inclusion of serial numbers and record-maintenance standards, plus wider background check enforcement.
Trump's executive order didn't officially start the rulemaking process to overturn these provisions, but it's only a matter of time, Oliva said.
"The rules haven't gone 'poof,'" he said. "But, you could liken it to President Trump having just lit the fuse."
We rate this promise In the Works.