Key Takeaways: ATF New Rules and Regulations
In April 2026, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced over 30 new gun rules. These rules will result in sweeping and dangerous changes to longstanding federal gun safety regulations. In numerous rules, ATF itself has noted that these changes could result in “greater” and “increased” risks to public safety. In two rules, ATF says these changes could even result in “potential mass casualty events.”
These rollbacks would threaten public safety by:
- Putting more guns in more criminal or prohibited hands (with or without background checks, and with more background check loopholes)
- Making it more dangerous for law enforcement to prevent, investigate, and/or solve gun crime and gun trafficking
- Giving more giveaways to the gun industry by putting more guns in more hands in more places and shielding the industry from accountability
From on the campaign trail to inside the White House, President Donald Trump has promised that he “will always back our law enforcement heroes in blue” and that he and his administration “will make America safe again.”
Yet from the moment Trump took office for his second term, he has done exactly the opposite. And while a complicit Republican majority in Congress does nothing to stop these dangerous rollbacks, this administration has jeopardized public safety by:
- Allowing prohibited persons like convicted felons and domestic abusers to obtain access to guns once again
- Slashing funding for community violence intervention programs
- Pulling ATF agents off gun crime to work immigration enforcement while slashing the agency’s budget and making it easier for gun dealers to break gun safety laws
These broken promises are unacceptable — and Trump and his administration just keep doubling down on their disregard for public safety.
In April 2026, ATF announced over 30 new gun rules that will result in sweeping and dangerous changes to federal firearm regulations. These changes are giveaways to the gun industry, and they:
- Weaken oversight and accountability
- Make it easier for dangerous gun purchases to slip through the cracks by allowing more guns to be sold without background checks
- Increase the risk of gun violence, including mass shootings
- Could lead to more unsolved gun crimes
These changes are just the latest example of the Trump administration being — as the NRA has proudly stated — ”in lockstep” with the gun lobby. In fact, the gun lobby (including some of the same extremist gun organizations that have called for ATF to be defunded and even abolished altogether) literally stood behind Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and ATF Director Robert Cekada as these new rules were announced. One thing is clear: The Trump administration is trying to hand the industry its entire wishlist.
For decades, federal law has required that most gun purchases be made in person. This allows gun dealers to observe suspicious criminal behavior like gun trafficking and straw purchasing, or warning signs that someone may be a danger to themselves or in crisis. Responsible gun dealers can then decide not to make these sales.
But one of the Trump administration’s new rules — the “Skip the Counter Sales” rule — would allow gun buyers to never set foot in a gun store. The “Skip the Counter Sales” rule would let gun dealers ship firearms directly to someone’s door. That change would remove gun store employees as the first line of defense in keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals and gun traffickers.
The Trump administration estimates there will be 3.28 million more online firearm purchases per year with these “Skip the Counter Sales.” That means there would be 3.28 million fewer opportunities for gun stores to detect suspicious behavior and warning signs, and 3.28 million fewer chances to stop a tragedy.
The Trump administration’s new gun rules, in ATF’s own words, will create “greater” and “increased” risks to public safety. The result will be a golden age for gun traffickers and violent criminals seeking to get their hands on illegal weapons, and an ATF that is both unable and unwilling to do anything about it. These gifts for the gun industry will be paid in lives lost, families torn apart, and communities shattered.
Donald Trump and his administration say they are tough on crime and hard at work prioritizing public safety — but we don’t see the proof.
These rules will make it easier for dangerous individuals to purchase firearms and for gun traffickers to funnel illegal firearms to criminals and prohibited persons, while making it harder for law enforcement to prevent and investigate gun crime and hold bad actors — both shooters and their suppliers — accountable.
We won’t stand silently by as this administration guts our gun laws, rolls back enforcement, and pushes a guns-everywhere agenda with the help of a compliant Republican majority in Congress. Members of Congress will hear from us every day until gun sense voters send them packing in the midterms this November.
We deserve schools free from shootings. We deserve communities free from gun violence. And we deserve people in office who will take swift action to keep us safe rather than playing Russian roulette with American lives.
Ready to hold the Trump administration accountable at the ballot box?