So I got this email a while back from Gun Owners of America, one of the many gun rights groups that has been building a name for itself now that the National Rifle Association is faltering. Going out over the signature of Executive Vice President Erich Pratt, it’s an amazing bit of fantasy:
Mark – President Trump has made it crystal clear: he’s committed to restoring and defending your Second Amendment rights. But the Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, is actively IGNORING the president, betraying gun owners, and trampling your rights.
While Bondi’s DOJ has taken some positive steps for Second Amendment rights, the department is now acting on its own—defying President Trump’s directives and letting gun owners down in the process.
The idea of Pam Bondi defying Donald Trump’s wishes is absurd. She’s been in his pocket ever since Trump gave $25,000 to support her campaign for Florida Attorney General. She vocally supported his campaign, represented him through the first impeachment, and backed him at every turn. She’s not going to oppose his policy on guns.
The GOA letter lists some anti-gun things the DOJ has done:
THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE’S TERRIBLE SECOND AMENDMENT STANCES
❌ A rogue ATF employee declared pinned-and-welded barrels “not permanent” after destroying a sample with a vise. ATF has refused to reverse this Biden-era reinterpretation, threatening millions of legally configured rifles.
The concern here is that it is (effectively) illegal to have a rifle with a barrel shorter than 16 inches, but many rifles are sold with barrels slightly shorter than that, to which they permanently attach a muzzle device, such a flash suppressor or compensator, using the pin-and-weld method. This has long been recognized as bringing the gun into legal compliance.
The GOA says that an ATF employee claimed a muzzle device was not permanent because they could tear it off with enough force, even though that damaged the barrel enough to render the gun unusable. It’s questionable whether this actually changes anything, and rifles with pinned and welded muzzle devices are still being sold by major manufacturers.
Here are a few other complaints:
❌ After a pro-gun Supreme Court victory in Garland v. Cargill crushed the bump stock ban, Bondi’s DOJ refused to pay GOA’s legal fees, punishing grassroots defenders and discouraging pro-gun litigation.
The bump stock ban was enacted by an Executive Order that Trump signed in 2018. You folks at GOA fought him on it, so he’s not about to pay your bills. Not paying bills is kind of his brand.
❌ ATF weaponized background checks, spying on lawful sales, and leaving loopholes to expand this unconstitutional surveillance in the future.
❌ DOJ is using Biden’s anti-gun playbook to attack Missouri’s Second Amendment Protection Act, making arguments nearly identical to those used under the Biden regime.
Missouri’s Second Amendment Protection Act aims to prevent local police from helping enforce federal gun laws. Of course Trump’s Attorney General doesn’t like it: It mirrors the logic of sanctuary cities, which Trump hates, and it takes power away from Trump’s federal government, which he hates even more.
❌ Bondi’s DOJ is defending unconstitutional suppressor bans, parroting the failed arguments of California’s anti-gun politicians.
I don’t like them either, but they haven’t been found unconstitutional.
❌ In case after case, DOJ drags its feet, blocks legal fee recovery, and argues to keep Biden’s anti-gun rules alive for a future anti-gun president.
❌ The DOJ supported warrantless home searches in Montana, putting your Fourth Amendment rights at risk.
❌ The DOJ is even defending gag orders that prevent GOA from sharing FOIA documents.
Pratt then goes on to say:
Mark, President Trump is standing up for our rights. But the Department of Justice and Pam Bondi are BLOCKING his pro-2A agenda and ignoring orders from the top. This is an outright betrayal.
Oh, it may very well be a betrayal, but not by Pam Bondi.
Trump has done very little to help gun owners. He managed to eliminate the fee for a National Firearms Act tax stamp, which is required for suppressors and short-barreled rifles, but he didn’t get rid of the requirement for registration and ATF approval. Nor did he do anything about state laws banning such weapons.
Trump has pardoned multiple drug dealers and kingpins, and he even sprang George Santos from prison, but he hasn’t done a thing for people arrested by the ATF for ridiculous paperwork crimes.
Trump is no friend to the right to keep and bear arms. Blaming it on Bondi is just Pratt’s transparent attempt to avoid angering Trump supporters who donate to pro-gun organizations.
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