What Trump’s Gun Executive Order Could Do

President Donald Trump has made his first move on gun policy.

Last Friday, he issued an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to undertake a 30-day review of executive branch gun actions and positions to ensure they don’t violate the Second Amendment. The order itself doesn’t tell Bondi what specific actions to take. However, it does outline a number of areas to focus her review on.

So, what might come at the end of those 30 days? Let’s break it down section by section.

First, it’s important to note that the president is fairly limited in what he can do unilaterally on federal gun policy. Without Congress, he can’t implement some of the top priorities of the gun-rights movement or undo some of the successes the gun-control movement had under former President Joe Biden–such as the reforms included in the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

There are seven areas the executive order tells Bondi to look at, but the first one basically just encompasses the other ones. It simply directs her to review “all Presidential and agencies’ actions” during the Biden Administration that “may have impinged on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.” From there, it gets a bit more specific.

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Man who was being followed at gas station in NW Harris County shoots, kills other man

HOUSTON — A man was shot to death at a gas station in northwest Harris County Tuesday evening, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.

It happened at an Exxon gas station off the Northwest Freeway and Spring Cypress Road.

Gonzalez said a man approached another man for unknown reasons. The initial man kept following the other around the parking lot.

The man being followed took a gun out and fired at the other, striking him, according to Gonzalez.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. The alleged shooter stayed at the scene.

Sebastien Valentinus was a 3rd century Roman clergyman – either a priest or a bishop who ministered to persecuted Christians, whose martyrdom is commemorated in Western Christianity on February 14.

From the High Middle Ages, his feast day has been associated with a tradition of courtly love. He is also a patron saint of Terni, epilepsy and beekeepers.

While under house arrest of Judge Asterius, and discussing his faith with him, Valentinus was discussing the validity of Jesus. The judge put Valentinus to the test and brought to him the judge’s adopted blind daughter. If Valentinus succeeded in restoring the girl’s sight, Asterius would do whatever he asked. Valentinus, praying to God, laid his hands on her eyes and the child’s vision was restored.

In the year 269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to a three part execution of a beating, stoning, and finally decapitation all because of his stand for Christian marriage. The story goes that the last words he wrote were in a note to Asterius’ daughter, inspiring today’s romantic missives by signing it, “from your Valentine.”

His body buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14, which has been observed as the Feast of Saint Valentine since at least the eighth century.

When Money From Anti-Gun Billionaires Wasn’t Enough, Gun Control Orgs Went After Taxpayer Dollars.

Gun owners are getting exactly what they voted for with President Donald Trump. There’s now an accounting for government malfeasance in process and he’s turned up the receipts.

President Trump is delivering on his promise to break open the secretive spending habits of government officials. It’s exactly what voters wanted and, frankly, expected. The results, however, have been jaw-dropping. Gun control proponents have been smashing open the government piggy bank to swipe dollars for their pet gun control projects.

That’s right. Gun control advocates were using taxpayer dollars to fund their campaigns to rob Americans of their Constitutionally-protected rights to keep and bear arms. That’s adding insult to injury after the Biden-Harris administration installed a taxpayer-funded office dedicated to pushing gun control. It was staffed by a former lobbyist for Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control group funded by antigun billionaire Michael Bloomberg. That office effectively closed up in the days leading up to President Trump taking office as its staff all resigned.

It turns out, though, that billions of Bloomberg bucks and even more money from George and Alexander Soros weren’t enough for gun control advocates. They wanted to fund the effort to cut off Second Amendment rights straight from Americans’ wallets – including tax dollars paid by gun owners themselves.

Lee Williams uncovered, in a post to Shooting News Weekly, what many have suspected for years. Except it had been covered up in layers of bureaucracy and farmed out as “grants” through the U.S. Agency for International Development. That’s the federal agency that’s drawn the first and damning examination by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

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Man dies after being shot trying to force way into ex’s home in north Harris County

The sheriff’s office said the ex-boyfriend had kicked down the front door of the apartment where the woman, her son and other family members lived.

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A 24-year-old man fatally shot his mother’s 49-year-old ex-boyfriend who was trying to force his way into their apartment early Thursday morning, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

This happened around 1 a.m. on West Village Drive, which is off Hamill Road near the Eastex Freeway in north Harris County.

The sheriff’s office said the ex-boyfriend had kicked down the front door of the apartment where the woman, her son and other family members lived. After kicking down the door, HCSO said the man attempted to assault the woman’s son, who responded by shooting the man twice. HCSO said the shooting was done in self-defense.

The man was taken to an area hospital where he died.

The case will be referred to a grand jury to determine whether any charges will be filed against the shooter.

Witnesses told HCSO the ex-boyfriend’s behavior had become aggressive and concerning leading up to the incident.

Firearms Policy Coalition
LEGAL ALERT: Maine federal judge issues preliminary injunction against the state’s 72-hour firearm waiting period. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco

“Though [Attorney General] Frey concedes that the Constitution makes inviolate a right to keep and bear arms, he asserts that it does not protect the corollary right to acquire arms, which is a curious construction indeed.”
“Acquiring a firearm is a necessary step in the exercise of keeping and bearing a firearm. Any interpretation to the contrary requires the type of interpretative jui jitsu that would make Kafka blush.”

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Pam Bondi Announces Charges Against Kathy Hochul, Letitia James

Newly sworn-in Attorney General Pam Bondi held her first U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) press briefing Wednesday where she announced federal charges filed against the state of New York, specifically Gov. Kathy Hochul, the state’s AG Letitia James, and Commissioner Mark Schroeder of the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

“New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens. It stops today,” Bondi said.

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Despite ATF’s Pistol Brace Ban Being Vacated, the Rogue Agency is Still Trying to Jail People Who Use Them.

Documents filed in an ongoing prosecution for illegal possession of a short-barreled rifle are raising new concerns about ATF’s enforcement policy concerning pistols with attached stabilizing braces. The government’s assertions of authority are truly breathtaking, claiming they can use the terms of an invalid rule to interpret the underlying statute and enforce it against U.S. citizens in felony prosecutions.

We have been reporting on the saga of ATF’s ill-fated 2023 administrative edict, Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached “Stabilizing Braces,” ever since the rule was proposed. The final version of that regulation reversed more than a decade of prior statements by ATF that attaching a stabilizing brace to a pistol did not create a short-barreled rifle (SBR) regulated under the National Firearms Act. Instead, ATF would use a series of vague and open-ended criteria to determine if the braced pistol was intended to be fired from the shoulder. But the rule provided no guidance to owners of such pistols how the criteria would be applied. Instead, ATF essentially claimed, “We’ll know an SBR when we see it.”

The pistol brace rule drew numerous legal challenges – including by the NRA – and several different courts found it defective on various grounds. A series of injunctions against its enforcement issued until, on June 13, 2024, a federal judge in Texas vacated the rule altogether. Owners of braced pistols breathed a sigh of relief as the threat of felony prosecution seemingly abated.

Last month, however, we reported on an alarming email to a gun owner sent by ATF’s Firearm Industry Programs Branch. The owner had asked ATF if attaching a stabilizing brace to a CZ Scorpion pistol would turn it into an SBR subject to the NFA. FIPB’s reply stated: “Federal law requires a pistol with an attached stabilizing brace or stock be registered as a short barreled rifle (SBR).”

The FIPB response also acknowledged that enforcement of ATF’s pistol brace rule was enjoined, and asserted, “While the appeal is pending, ATF is complying with the Court’s order.”

Yet ATF’s idea of “compliance,” according to the email, was to assert an even broader authority to treat ALL braced pistols as SBRs (not just ones fulfilling the “factoring criteria” specified in its rule), based on the agency’s reading of the underlying statutes.

After our reporting on that email, ATF quickly issued another statement, walking back the categorical statement about braced pistols. “ATF agrees that the statement ‘Federal law requires a pistol with an attached stabilizing brace or stock be registered as a short barreled rifle (SBR)’ is overbroad.” But the follow-up also continued to assert that ATF remained responsible for enforcing the underlying statutes.

“A firearm designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder that meets the statutory definition of a short-barreled rifle contained in the NFA must be made and transferred in accordance with the requirements of the NFA,” it stated. It did not, however, elaborate on how the agency would make this determination with respect to braced pistols or how owners of such guns might know whether ATF considers their firearms SBRs subject to the NFA.

Last week, however, NRA was made aware of a pending prosecution for illegal possession of a short-barreled rifle that answers this question in a shocking way. Documents the government filed in that case acknowledge ATF’s enforcement of the underlying statute continues to be informed by the terms of the agency’s illegal rule. The case is U.S. v. Taranto in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

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