Undoing a major avenue of Biden Administration aggression against gun dealers, the DOJ and ATF on Tuesday announced the termination of the Federal Firearms Administrative Action Policy, also known as the Zero Tolerance Policy. Evidencing the warm relationship between the Trump administration and America's firearm community, the news was first reported by Gun Owners of America (GOA), which scooped every major media outlet. Other moves are reportedly in the works -- including changes to regulation of pistol braces, and background checks on private firearms transactions.
"First introduced under the Biden administration, the policy aggressively targeted gun dealers for minor paperwork errors—creating fear and uncertainty across the firearms community," GOA said in a press release that praised the move as a "major Second Amendment win."
As set out by the Biden administration, the Zero Tolerance Policy set out to yank firearm-dealers' licenses if they were found to have made any of a number of infractions, such as "willfully" selling guns to convicted felons, failing to perform a background check, or failed to help police trace weapons used in crimes. Some critics said it was a pretext for a reducing the number of firearms dealers in the country.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation lauded the policy's eradication. "This reckless policy throttled small businesses and drove many to shut down by threatening crippling administrative costs to fight against penalties for minor errors and infractions that were previously reconciled in good faith between ATF officials and law-abiding firearm retailers," said NSSF SVP Lawrence G. Keene. Gun control advocates condemned the move. "The reversal of this policy is a gift to the gun industry, sending a clear signal to rogue gun dealers that they can break the law without consequences," said "Brady," the awkwardly-short name now used by what was once called the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
GOA also announced that two other noteworthy deregulatory moves are coming soon. The first would kill the Biden-era ban on pistol braces, which turned millions of peaceable Americans into felons for owning something that was legal when they acquired it. Pistol braces were designed in 2012 to help disabled veterans shoot rifles more accurately.
The catalog of leftists saying positively ignorant and idiotic things about firearms is vast, but President Biden on pistol braces must be in the top five, as he claimed that "putting a pistol on a brace...turns [it] into a gun," and allows it to shoot a "higher-caliber bullet":
Putting a pistol on a brace turns it into a gun and makes your bullet a higher caliber...🤡 🤡 🤡
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) June 17, 2023
The lies prove that the Regime's objective is the complete disarmament of peaceable people.
Help the lawsuit printer defeat this madness at https://t.co/3HeXP6SBmB. pic.twitter.com/hPBrynj1h2
The brace ban was already on its last legs, having been repeatedly found by judges to be "arbitrary and capricious" and/or exceeding ATF's authority. "[The pistol brace rule] allows the ATF to arrive at whatever conclusion it wishes without ‘adequately explain[ing] the standard on which its decision is based," wrote the majority in an August ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Another rule is in the White House's sights: The one requiring a background check on a private gun sale, in a way that critics said could ensnare a widow selling her late husband's shotgun to a friend. Licensed firearms dealers were already required to perform background checks, but the Biden administration expanded the interpretation of who is considered to be "engaged in the business" of selling firearms.
The “Zero Tolerance” policy at @ATFHQ is officially gone. Thanks for your leadership in reforming this agency @Kash_Patel. The review of stabilizing braces and who actually is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms has begun. @NRA
— John Commerford (@jcommerford) April 7, 2025
On Feb. 7, Trump signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Biondi to scour federal regulations and policies with the goal of identifying and eliminating those that infringe on the Constitutionally-protected right of armed self-defense. At the time, the White House said the Zero Tolerance Policy was one of its principal concerns:
The so-called “zero tolerance” or “enhanced regulatory enforcement policy” put in place under the previous administration led to a nearly six-fold increase in enforcement actions against Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL’s), many of whom are mom-and-pop shop small businesses who made innocent paperwork errors.
A few weeks later, Trump made a highly unorthodox personnel move, tapping ardent gun-rights advocate Kash Patel, who'd recently been confirmed as FBI director, to take charge of the ATF too. The White House is reportedly considering a reorganization that would see ATF merge with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The Trump administration has been a mixed bag, but so far, it's really delivering on the rollback of infringements on the right of armed self-defense.
