Free Republic

Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), now under the leadership of newly confirmed Director Robert Cekada, rolled out a lengthy list of final and proposed rule changes to a wide range of federal firearms regulations. They contain some noteworthy developments for Second Amendment advocates. The Trump administration’s rule changes are a welcome announcement – particularly since there has been a bit of a gap in Second Amendment action since the President’s February 2025 executive order on “Protecting Second Amendment Rights.” As of this week, several of both the final...

A Utah man missed his connection at Newark Airport, went to retrieve his checked luggage, which contained a properly declared, unloaded firearm, and got arrested. He did everything right. New Jersey didn't care. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) cited that case in a proposed rule published earlier this week that would amend existing Gun Control Act regulations to protect gun owners during routine travel interruptions — a missed flight, a hotel stay, a fuel stop, a medical emergency. The Utah case isn't an outlier. New York and New Jersey have made a prosecution racket out of...

The Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have announced plans to repeal or revise more than 30 federal gun regulations, completing a 50-year pendulum swing back to the Second Amendment's original, resulting in praise from one of the country's longest-standing gun-rights advocates. “This is why America elected Donald Trump. Freedom. ATF has no business making up rules, that’s what Congress does. Blanch, Dhillon, and Cekada are setting the right course," NRA Board Member and retired Army Lt. Col. Willes K. Lee told Just The News after the DOJ and ATF made the announcement last week....

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is releasing this week 34 notices of final and proposed rulemaking following a comprehensive review of existing regulations conducted in accordance with Executive Order 14206, Protecting Second Amendment Rights. Consistent with ATF's commitment in 2025 to rebuild trust with Federal Firearms and Explosives Licensees (FFLs/FELs) and industry stakeholders, this review included a consideration of industry and expert feedback and concerns. This landmark release is the first in a series of regulatory updates ATF plans to issue.The resulting rules are an effort to reduce unnecessary burdens...

WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Trump Administration took further action to protect Second Amendment rights on Wednesday.Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Acting Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Director Robert Cekada held a news conference to unveil a "landmark package" of proposed and final gun regulations for the DOJ and ATF.z,pz. They announced that the vote on the package passed on Wednesday afternoon, releasing 34 notices of final and proposed rulemaking following regulations.Blanche said the package "reduces unnecessary burdens on lawful gunowners and licensed businesses, it eliminates ambiguity and it helps prevent the kind of confusion that, in...

The gun used in the terror attack on Old Dominion University was a stolen .22 caliber handgun that uses 10-round magazines. The pistol was untraceable for two common reasons. First, the gun was stolen. This breaks any chain of custody. A trace only goes to the first retail purchaser. When a gun is stolen, there is no link from the legal purchaser to the thief. From apnews.com: The man charged Friday, Kenya Chapman, told federal agents in an interview that he stole the gun from a car in Newport News, Virginia, about a year before the shooting and recently sold...

National Association for Gun Rights staff member Zackary Clark successfully registered a potato with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives during 2026 under the new rules, as a silencer. The new rules, starting on January 1, do not require the payment of a tax to make and register a silencer. Silencers are classified as “firearms” in the National Firearms Act (NFA). The video recorded by Zackary shows what happened to the potato when it was used as a silencer. A fair amount of energy goes into blowing a potato into small pieces. Almost certainly, the noise from the...

The article does push gun control but is eye opening none the less. Large numbers of Barrett .50 Cal rifles are being legally purchased in the US and shipped to Mexico to be used by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Additionally, recent allegation against the Jalisco New Generation Cartel indicate that 4 US Special Forces Soldiers, 1 Green Beret/Delta Force Operator, 2 US Navy Seals and a Ranger from 75th Ranger Regiment. The point that is interesting to me is this one particular cartel has professional military people running their operations who have all received special forces training in the...

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) released a report in 2024 detailing updated data about traces involving Privately Made Firearms (PMF), sometimes referred to as “ghost guns” in the media. The data covers traces from 2017 through 2023. ATF also publishes overall trace data for firearms for the covered years. The total number of firearms traced in the seven years 2017-2023 was 288,0257. Of those, PMF traced are 92,702, or 3.2% of the total. The number of PMFs traced has been growing. In 2023, 5.4% of the total firearms traced were PMFs. Of the total homicides involving...

President Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is being hailed Wednesday as the “first ever truly pro-Second Amendment” choice to lead the agency. ATF Deputy Director Robert Cekada’s nomination to the top job at the bureau was quietly transmitted to Congress on Tuesday and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Cekada, a former NYPD detective, has been with the federal law enforcement agency in various roles since 2005 and has served as deputy director since April. “In his role as Deputy Director, we have worked closely with Robert Cekada to ensure law-abiding gun...

A group of 30 House Republicans is raising alarms about how the government shutdown is impacting gun owners across the U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., led his colleagues in a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Thursday urging its acting director to reclassify certain employees as essential workers, warning that current parameters are leaving many gun owners’ applications for certain items in limbo. “As a result of this Democrat-led shutdown, ATF, like most federal agencies, is operating at a reduced workforce. And while Democrats continue to fight for benefits for illegal aliens, the constitutional rights...

Once again, it turns out that what Robinson wrote on his bullet casings was not secret right-wing code. "Notices bulge, oWo, what's this?" was a reference to his trans partner/roommate, who is also a furry. You can all apologize to the ATF now. That includes the NYTs.

Leaked Teams memo reveals rifle, ideological ammo in Charlie Kirk campus shooting Orem, UT – Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was fatally shot Wednesday afternoon while speaking at Utah Valley University, and a leaked federal memo appears to shed light on the suspected weapon, ammunition, and potential motives behind the attack. At this time, the leaked FBI teams message has not been verified after being posted online. The memo states that the gunman fired a single shot from a rooftop near the university before fleeing on foot. Kirk, 31, had been on campus as part of his nationwide “American Comeback Tour.”...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released a pair of images of a “person of interest” in the shooting death of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. “We are asking for the public’s help identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University,” the bureau wrote on X along with the photos, which show a lanky male dressed head to toe in dark clothing. The subject is wearing wraparound sunglasses, a dark-colored hat, and a long-sleeve shirt that appears to have an American flag on *** An imported .30-06-caliber Mauser bolt-action rifle —...

The bullet used to kill conservative activist Charlie Kirk was engraved with transgender and anti-fascist ideology, according to a law bulletin. The notice sent to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents said that bullets found inside the rifle, a .30-06 caliber hunting rifle, contained the messaging on them. The 31-year-old MAGA figurehead was gunned down on Wednesday while speaking at a university event in Orem, Utah. According to the notice, the weapon was wrapped up in a towel, with a spent cartridge in the chamber. Another three unspent rounds were discovered in the magazine, all of which...

In 2022, the ATF changed the procedures for filling out a Form 1 to make your own silencer. The ATF denied about 850 applications. The ATF claimed “Solvent Traps” were actually suppressors, started denying Form 1 applications, and required much more information about how a silencer was to be manufactured, and what parts would be used to make the silencer. Senators and representatives sent two letters, one from Representatives and one from Senators, to the Biden ATF asking for clarification of what the ATF was doing. Here is an excerpt from the Senate letter submitted to ATF on March 16,...

The Biden-era ATF rule restricting pistol braces was vacated Thursday after President Donald Trump's Department of Justice agreed to drop its appeal in a federal lawsuit, delivering a major victory to gun-rights advocates, Breitbart reported. The move marks a significant reversal in federal firearms regulation and concludes a lengthy legal battle over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives' 2023 rule that reclassified AR-pistols with braces as short-barreled rifles under the National Firearms Act. "This afternoon, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and the federal government agreed to a joint dismissal of the government's appeal in our Mock v. Bondi lawsuit,...

Three years ago Patrick Adamiak was an E-6 in the Navy, on his way to finishing a military career. At 28, he had a private business selling popular gun parts and replica, non-firing weapons. Today, he’s nearing his third year in a federal prison, serving a 20-year sentence. His life fell apart when the ATF decided to take an interest in him. They raided his home and found nothing illegal, just gun parts and entirely legal, semiautomatic guns. But these were the Biden/Garland years and guns of any kind, and gun owners, were in their crosshairs. An example had to...

The agency is working with the ATF general counsel to cut upwards of 50 regulations as the administration drastically reduces the number of inspectors.The U.S. DOGE Service has sent staff to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the goal of revising or eliminating dozens of rules and gun restrictions by July 4, according to multiple people with knowledge of the efforts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been made public. The initial target was to change 47 regulations, an apparent reference to Donald Trump’s status as the 47th president of...

The Trump administration has reconsidered what state and territory firearms permits qualify as substitutes for National Instant Criminal Background Check system checks, or more generally, for Brady Law checks when purchasing a firearm. Two more states, Michigan and Alabama, have been added to the current list. As of present, 29 states and Puerto Rico have permits that qualify.Not all permits in a particular state may qualify. In Alabama, both the Concealed Carry Permit and the Lifetime Concealed Carry Permit qualify. In Michigan, both the Permit to Purchase, Carry, Possess, or Transport a handgun and the license to conceal carry qualify.Missouri...