Second Amendment enthusiast Trump on guns and gun control

While gun policy has not been as high a priority in the opening months of President Donald Trump's second term as issues like immigration, trade and the federal workforce, the administration's agenda of dismantling federal regulations around firearms is starting to take shape. During his first term, Trump positioned himself as an ardent defender of the conservative legal movement's Second Amendment doctrine, resisting calls to make gun laws more restrictive and appointing like-minded judges to the federal judiciary. But guns were not a focus of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and he has not pursued the same legally questionable tactics on the issue that he has applied to other domains.

Will Trump be a defender of gun owners' rights?

The first action on guns in Trump's second term came quickly, when he "shut down the Office of Gun Violence Prevention immediately after taking office" and took its website offline, said Mother Jones. Then on February 7, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order that "directed the Attorney General to review reports and documents from the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention," as well as "rules promulgated by the Department of Justice pertaining to firearms," in order to determine whether they clash with the administration's expansive view of individual gun rights, said the Duke Center For Firearms Law. The move "signals a strong anti-regulatory push" and suggests that "our most important federal firearm regulations may suddenly receive the cold shoulder from the government."

As part of that review, the Department of Justice was "assigned the job of putting together a list of people who should have their right to purchase or own a handgun restored," said Vulture. On March 7, 2025, the DOJ fired Pardon Attorney Elizabeth Oyer, "hours after I declined to recommend reinstating the gun rights of a famous friend of the president, the actor Mel Gibson," said Oyer at Rolling Stone. Later that month, the Department of Justice announced that it would be pursuing "plans to create a path for people with criminal convictions to own guns again," said The New York Times.

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Other elements of the Trump campaign's gun agenda have thus far gone unaddressed. His Agenda 47 campaign page had promised that as president,Agenda 47 page did promise that as president, Trump would "sign concealed carry reciprocity legislation," referencing a bill that passed the House in 2017; this would force states that currently prohibit individuals from carrying concealed firearms to allow anyone with a valid concealed carry permit to do so. Concealed carry reciprocity legislation has already been introduced in the House and Senate as of January 2025, but no further action has been taken, according to the legislative database Govtrack. "and is expected to pass Congress," said the Colorado Springs-Gazette.

Congress is unlikely to take up the legislation soon given that Republicans leaders have been focused on passing a budget and trying to find pathways toward implementing the president's overall agenda. The Department of Health and Human Services also "removed a former surgeon general's warning declaring gun violence a public health crisis," said Politico.

How will the Supreme Court influence the future of gun laws in America?

As president from 2017 to 2021, Trump appointed three justices to the United States Supreme Court, all of whom were regarded as strong supporters of gun rights. Yet the Court has only issued a handful of major rulings on guns during this period. The most high-profile decision was when a 6-3 majority, including all three of Trump's appointees, ruled in June 2022 that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals' right to carry guns outside of their homes, preempting state laws prohibiting firearms in public places.

There is currently a case before the Supreme Court regarding so-called "ghost guns" — guns assembled from kits that contain the parts necessary to build a firearm — challenging a Biden administration rule designed to treat the sale of gun components used in the creation of such devices like any other gun sold on the market. The Trump campaign did not take a public position on the issue, and as president, Trump has yet to take any action in his second term. "Simply waiting for the Court’s decision, then, might be a strategic play to let the issue blow over and potentially keep the regulation on the books if upheld," said the Duke Center For Firearms Law.