ATF Keeps Biden Ghost Gun Rule — Defying Trump Mandate

Despite operating under a new administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has decided to keep Biden's 2022 frames and receivers rule alive, leaving one of the most legally battered gun regulations in recent history firmly on the books.

The agency had requested stays in two landmark federal lawsuits — VanDerStok v. Bondi and Defense Distributed v. Bondi — claiming it needed time to draft a replacement rule. Now the ATF abandons that promise and clings to Biden's original regulatory power grab instead.

Let that sink in. The Trump administration's ATF is preserving a Biden-era rule that federal courts have already hammered in litigation. This isn't bureaucratic inertia — this is a deep-state agency protecting its own expanded authority over law-abiding Americans.

The 2022 rule redefined what legally constitutes a "frame" or "receiver" under federal law, forcing serialization requirements onto unfinished parts and parts kits. Multiple federal judges have already questioned whether the ATF ever held statutory authority to rewrite those definitions in the first place.

Acting AG Todd Blanche controls the Justice Department lawyers defending this rule in court. That means Blanche has a direct hand in whether the federal government keeps fighting to preserve Biden's regulatory legacy against American gun owners and manufacturers. He needs to answer for that choice.

Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson and the VanDerStok plaintiffs have fought this rule tooth and nail. They deserve results — not more delay tactics from an agency that has spent years treating builders and hobbyists like criminals.

The ATF doesn't get to choose which administration it serves. If the Trump DOJ won't rein in this rogue bureau, Congress must act — defund the rule's enforcement, pass the Hearing Protection Act, and remind every unelected ATF bureaucrat exactly who they work for.

Call your representatives today. The ATF is counting on your silence.