ATF Keeps Biden's Ghost Gun Rule—Trump Does Nothing

The ATF just stabbed gun owners in the back, and the Trump administration is letting it happen.

Despite Republican control of the White House, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will keep Biden's 2022 "frames and receivers" rule on the books. The rule weaponized the definition of a firearm to target so-called "ghost guns" and homemade builds—a power grab that was supposed to die with the Biden era.

It didn't. Not even close.

The ATF had previously requested stays in two major federal lawsuits—VanDerStok v. Bondi and Defense Distributed v. Bondi—claiming it needed time to draft a replacement regulation. Gun owners took that as a promising sign. They were played.

The agency is now signaling that replacement rule isn't coming. The Biden-era overreach stays intact. Law-abiding builders, hobbyists, and Second Amendment purists remain in the ATF's crosshairs.

Here's what this rule actually does: it redefines unfinished frames and receivers as fully regulated firearms under the Gun Control Act—treating parts that are not guns as if they were guns. It's regulatory fiction dressed up as law enforcement, and it criminalizes a longstanding American tradition: building your own firearm.

The Supreme Court already punched a hole in this rule. In Garland v. VanDerStok, the Court sent parts of the case back through the lower courts—and the ATF read that as permission to keep the broader rule alive. Classic bureaucratic survival.

Acting AG Todd Blanche and the Justice Department owe gun owners one straight answer: whose side are you on?

The ATF has repeatedly operated as a political weapon against gun owners. From pistol brace bans to forced reset trigger seizures to this frames and receivers monstrosity, the bureau answers to no one. Under Trump's first term, real reform never materialized. The pattern is repeating.

Contact your representatives today. Demand Acting AG Todd Blanche direct the DOJ to withdraw the frames and receivers rule immediately—no replacement, no negotiation. The Second Amendment carries no asterisk for parts the ATF decides to redefine.