In an ill-advised move that has gun-rights organizations and pro-gun advocates angry, the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has chosen to keep in place the arguably unconstitutional “Frame & Receiver” final rule put in place by the Biden Administration.
“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.
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. The question in the case Garland v. Vanderstock was whether the DOJ and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) overstepped their bounds in promulgating the Final Rule.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in a 2023 case that the DOJ had overstepped its bounds in making the final rule, upholding an earlier district court decision on the matter. However, in March 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Biden-era rule.
In a statement issued after the DOJ announcement, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) said that it was just one in a long list of disappointing moves by the Trump Administration regarding the Second Amendment.
“On February 7, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14206, ‘Protecting Second Amendment Rights,’” FPC wrote. “It sounded promising, but it has since proven to be little more than empty rhetoric.”
Rather than dismissing the Supreme Court appeal or withdrawing the Biden ATF regulation before the Court ruled, the Trump Administration chose to continue defending the gun control rule, allowing the Court to issue a decision that preserved President Biden’s regulatory overreach.
“In May 2025, FPC provided the Trump White House, DOJ and ATF with a complete, print-ready proposed rule to address the Court’s decision following months of dialogue with key officials,” FPC said. “But the Administration has since sat on its hands.”
As FPC pointed out, it has repeatedly tried to work with the administration, but to no avail.
“To put this latest disappointment in context, FPC has provided the Trump Administration, the White House, DOJ, and ATF, with dozens of lawful actions that could be taken to protect peaceable gun owners and the right to keep and bear arms. Nearly all of those proposals have been ignored,” FPC wrote. “Instead, in case after case, the Trump Administration has adopted authoritarian, anti-American positions to restrict Second Amendment rights and prosecute those who exercise them. Worse still, the Administration is actively fighting to restrict or eliminate the injunctive relief that FPC and other organizations obtain to protect people from government abuses.”
Another pro-gun group, Gun Owners of America (GOA), also expressed disappointment with the administration’s decision.
“So, which is it?” GOA asked in a social media post. “Because this doesn’t look like the ‘most pro-gun administration in history’ from where we’re standing. Gun owners were promised change. Instead, we’re getting Biden-era gun control with a new label slapped on it. That’s not acceptable.”
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