Among all the infringements of the Second Amendment perpetrated by the Biden-Harris regime, one of the most punitive and consequential was ATF’s “zero tolerance” enforcement policy for Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs). This scheme turned routine inspections of FFLs into a reign of terror that could end longstanding, legitimate businesses over simple paperwork or procedural errors. Adding to the persecutory nature of this campaign was the fact that the administration was simultaneously trying to require more and more gun sellers to be licensed. Thus, unlicensed sellers risked going to prison (or worse), while licensed sellers could be shut down over harmless mistakes. Fortunately, the Biden-Harris war on gun sales ended with the election of President Trump, under whose watch ATF ended zero tolerance FFL inspections.
That was a positive start and the beginning of a possible healing of the rift between American’s licensed gun businesses and the agency that is supposed to provide oversight (rather than summary execution) of them.
On May 21, however, ATF went a step further and announced that “Federal firearms licensees that surrendered their licenses, had their licenses revoked, or had their applications denied based on the [zero tolerance program] may reapply.” ATF will “review new applications and all pending licensing matters under the new administrative action policy,” which provides a fairer and more wholistic assessment of alleged instances of noncompliance.
ATF credited President Trump’s Feb. 7, 2025, Executive Order Protecting Second Amendment Rights as the basis for terminating zero tolerance, implementing a fairer enforcement policy, and reexamining the prior adverse licensing actions. It encouraged individuals with questions about how this announcement applies to prior decisions to “contact their local ATF field office or email [email protected].”
Ending zero tolerance was one of NRA-ILA’s highest priority agenda items for President Trump’s second term. In a memorandum to the administration containing suggestions for implementing the Protecting Second Amendment Rights Executive Order, NRA-ILA wrote:
ATF’s enhanced regulatory enforcement policy should be formally repudiated by the current administration. Those who tried to justify “inherent” willfulness should have no further role in crafting ATF enforcement policies or making legal determinations on behalf of the agency. There should also be a review of FFLs that were revoked under this policy, and cases that did not involve a proper application of “willfulness” or involved inadvertent mistakes posing no material risk to public safety should be reopened. Going forward, ATF must enforce a proper standard of willfulness that requires the agency to carry its burden to establish this element under the specific facts of each case.
Happily, all these things have now come to pass. Not only has ATF ended zero tolerance, replaced it with a more reasonable standard, and invited FFLs adversely affected by it to reapply, it has parted ways with several senior officials previously involved in crafting its legal policy. This includes the former acting director, chief counsel, and senior policy counsel. We also reported last week how DOJ ended another overreaching ATF enforcement effort by settling the outstanding legal cases involving Rare Breed and other parties involved in ATF’s forced reset trigger crackdown. ATF additionally took the recent step of removing a politically inspired display curated by gun control activists from its D.C. headquarters, further reinforcing that it is getting back to focusing on dangerous criminals, rather than anti-gun virtue signaling.
To be sure, ATF will not re-earn the trust of the American public overnight. Nevertheless, President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi are taking proactive steps to reform the troubled agency and reassure gun owners and businesses that the ATF is retraining its sights on the bad guys.
We look forward to reporting on further developments in this unfolding story.
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