It might have seemed impossible, but the Trump administration has come up with a policy that will make it even less popular.
The Trump administration wants to roll back and weaken regulations to allow sellers to avoid licensing and background check requirements.
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Reps. Lucy McBath and Jamie Raskin wrote to the ATF Director and registered their objections:
Congress has repeatedly acted—on both a bipartisan and bicameral basis—to strengthen background checks, combat illegal gun trafficking, support crime gun tracing, improve firearms dealer accountability, and prevent firearms from reaching dangerous individuals.
Most recently, Congress enacted the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to enhance our nation’s background checks system, close gaps that allow firearms to be acquired without appropriate scrutiny, reduce gun violence, and expand access to mental health services. 2 These bipartisan policy changes contributed to a historic drop in violent crime, including a 44% drop in homicide that began in 2022—two years before President Donald Trump began his second term—and continues to this day.3 Your proposed rules would move our country in the opposite direction. ATF’s proposed rules would increase opportunities for prohibited purchasers to obtain firearms. They make it harder for law enforcement to investigate gun crimes and trace crime guns. They weaken standards governing who must become a federally licensed firearms dealer.
The supposedly tough-on-crime president is going to make it easier for criminals to get guns, but the kicker is that one of the people who will financially benefit from these changes is Donald Trump Jr.