The wishy-washy nature of the Trump Administration’s handling of Second Amendment issues remains on full display as the saga of the Biden-era frame & receiver final rule continues to unfold.
As we reported less than a week ago, the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) recently decided to keep in place the arguably unconstitutional “Frame & Receiver” final rule put in place by the Biden Administration. At issue is the final rule, sometimes referred to as the “ghost gun” rule, that redefined important legal terms dealing with guns, including “firearm,” “receiver,” and “frame,” making the longstanding American tradition of building personal firearms pretty much a thing of the past.
“At this time, the [Trump Administration] has decided to maintain the current definition of firearm ‘frame’ and ‘receiver’ contained in that final [Biden Administration] rule,” the administration wrote on April 8.
Now, according to multiple reports, the DOJ has informed plaintiffs’ counsel in cases challenging the final rule that a new rule is forthcoming, and it has asked the courts to continue the stays while the rulemaking process unfolds. Apparently, gun-rights groups put enough pressure on the DOJ that it is backing away from the final rule.
“On February 7, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14206, ‘Protecting Second Amendment Rights,’” the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) wrote at the time. “It sounded promising, but it has since proven to be little more than empty rhetoric.”
In an April 15 social media post, the FPC informed its followers that it had received a message from the DOJ stating, in part: “The government has advised that it is considering changes to the frame/receiver rule by ATF being challenged in this case.” FPC was one of the organizations that came down hard on the Trump DOJ after it announced it would retain the Biden-era restriction
While that might sound like good news, the organization isn’t confident that the administration will make the right decision concerning the matter.
“This says only that they are ‘considering changes,’ not that they have made any decision to make changes,” the FPC wrote in the post. “Moreover, we have no indication what any such changes might entail. As we recently stated, FPC provided the White House, DOJ and ATF with a print-ready proposal nearly a year ago. The government has done nothing at all on this—except fight to defend the Biden rule— until now.”
In fact, in the post, the FPC characterized the government’s statement about “considering changes” as essentially meaningless.
“At this time, it is impossible to characterize this statement as anything meaningful,” FPC concluded. “It could easily just be another delay and avoidance tactic to deal with the apparent problem the Trump Administration created for itself.
“Our FPC Law team is actively working to end this immoral rule, and we are committed to informing the public as soon as there is something to report.”