ATF Keeps Biden's Ghost Gun Rule — Trump's DOJ Stands Down

Despite two active federal lawsuits challenging the Biden-era frames and receivers rule, the ATF has signaled it will keep the 2022 regulation alive while it drafts a so-called 'replacement.' The agency requested stays in both VanDerStok v. Bondi and Defense Distributed v. Bondi — freezing the legal challenges and buying itself time to entrench the rule further.

Acting AG Todd Blanche's DOJ has not moved to withdraw the regulation. That means a Republican administration is actively maintaining a Biden gun control rule while plaintiffs who fought to get their cases heard watch the clock run out.

That rule, rammed through by the Biden ATF in 2022, radically expanded the legal definition of 'firearm' to include unfinished frames and receivers — components law-abiding hobbyists and home builders have worked with legally for decades. Overnight, Biden's ATF turned countless ordinary Americans into potential felons for working in their own garages.

Now the Trump ATF is running the same play. Instead of killing the rule outright, the agency is executing a classic bureaucratic rope-a-dope — delay, revise, repackage — while the regulatory state cements its gains at the expense of your rights.

This rule was never about stopping criminals. Violent criminals don't machine their own 80% lowers — they steal guns or buy them on the black market. This rule exists to build a paper trail, expand federal jurisdiction, and manufacture felons out of law-abiding gun owners.

The Second Amendment carries no asterisk for ATF rulemaking.

Gun owners cannot assume this administration will clean house at the ATF on its own. The bureaucracy protects itself — and right now, it's winning.

Contact your representatives today. Demand Acting AG Todd Blanche direct the ATF to withdraw the frames and receivers rule immediately — no replacement, no revision, no delay. Kill it outright.