Trump's ATF Keeps Biden Ghost Gun Rule — No End in Sight

The ATF just told gun owners it has no intention of releasing one of the Biden administration's most legally contested power grabs.

Despite a new administration in the White House, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is keeping Biden's 2022 frames and receivers rule on the books — and gun owners should be furious.

The agency requested stays in two critical federal lawsuits — VanDerStok v. Bondi and Defense Distributed v. Bondi — claiming it needed time to draft a replacement regulation. That was the promise. Now the ATF has signaled it plans to keep the original Biden-era rule intact.

Let that sink in. Trump's ATF is enforcing Biden's rule.

The 2022 rule dramatically expanded the definition of what constitutes a firearm frame or receiver, effectively regulating partially completed parts kits as finished firearms. Federal judges have repeatedly hammered the rule as a textbook example of regulatory overreach that exceeds the agency's statutory authority under the Gun Control Act.

Defense Distributed — the Austin-based company that has fought this rule from day one — watches the agency it sued drag its feet while law-abiding Americans remain trapped under an unconstitutional regulation.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's Justice Department owns this delay. The DOJ controls the ATF's legal posture in these cases, and right now that posture is: keep Biden's rule alive.

The stays in both lawsuits bought the government time to act. They used that time to do nothing — or worse, to preserve exactly what they promised to dismantle.

Gun owners and Second Amendment advocates worked hard to elect a Congress and president who pledged to roll back Biden's anti-gun regulatory agenda. The frames and receivers rule sat at the top of that list.

This is the moment to make noise. Contact your representatives. Demand that Acting AG Blanche direct the ATF to withdraw this rule immediately — not replace it, not revise it. Kill it.

The ATF doesn't get to keep Biden's legacy just because the calendar changed. Hold them accountable.