Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), continues to play offense when it comes to the Trump administration defending the Second Amendment. Dhillon was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in April 2025, and by December, she had created the first Second Amendment Section of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division (CRIT).
That Section conducts investigations into policies that appear to conflict with the Second Amendment, and Dhillon’s office has filed a number of lawsuits where the jurisdiction refused to change course.
Lawsuits filed include challenges to the length of time it takes carry permits to be issued by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Virgin Islands Police Department implementing “an unconstitutional permitting process” related to the issuance of gun permits in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and bans on popular semi-automatic rifles in both Denver, Colo., and Washington, D.C.
These are just some of the official actions taken under Dhillon’s watch, which are all, of course, in the furtherance of President Donald Trump’s agenda to defend the Second Amendment. The groundwork for that effort was laid last year, shortly after Trump took office, when he issued his Executive Order on Protecting Second Amendment Rights.
More recently, the Assistant AG announced a focused effort to hire and train more lawyers specifically for CRIT’s Second Amendment Section. A report from The Washington Times stated, “her office’s goal is to have all state regulations that are inconsistent with pro-Second Amendment cases be struck down, settled or withdrawn by the time she leaves her post.” While certainly an ambitious objective, Dhillon is clearly invested in making progress on this historic undertaking.
Now, once again, she has set her office’s sights on California.
On June 24, Dhillon posted on X a letter she sent to California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) and Attorney General Robert Bonta (D) that notified the pair she has “authorized the filing of a complaint in federal district court against” California.
The point of contention is a California law that bans the sale or transfer of Glock pistols and similarly designed handguns. The legislation, which NRA has already filed a lawsuit challenging, is slated to go into effect this July 1.
In her letter, Dhillon further explained her office also intends to challenge the California Handgun Roster statute, which set arbitrary design standards for any handgun that gun manufacturers wished to have lawfully sold in the state.
The ban on Glocks and handguns with a similar design is based on the ridiculous premise that some people may violate a number of existing laws to convert these guns from being semiautomatic pistols to being capable of firing as machine guns, so the guns shall now be called “semiautomatic machine-gun convertible pistols” and banned.
As NRA-ILA Executive Director John Commerford pointed out in a recent Op-Ed posted to Fox News, “These (anti-Glock) laws are being promoted to the public as targeting ‘DIY machine guns.’ The branding, like the justification for these laws, collapses under even minimal scrutiny. Converting a semiautomatic firearm into a fully automatic firearm is already a serious federal offense, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and federal law also prohibits the manufacture, sale and possession of the conversion devices used to make that modification. On top of that, more than half the states in the country have already outlawed the conversion devices themselves.”
As for the California Handgun Roster, NRA has also filed a lawsuit challenging that law, and Dhillon’s letter pointed out that the law itself had already faced problems in court when one aspect of it was enjoined from being enforced in 2023.
The Assistant Attorney General’s letter also stated:
The Department will consider deferring the filing of the lawsuit for a short period if the State is willing to enter pre-suit negotiations in an effort to resolve this matter. Although the specific provisions are open to discussion, a resolution must at a minimum require the State: (1) immediately cease enforcement of the laws identified above; (2) acknowledge the unconstitutionality of these laws; and (3) agree to enter into a court-enforceable consent decree permanently enjoining the State from violating its citizens’ constitutional rights through these or similar laws.
Unfortunately for the taxpayers of California, there is no reason to believe the powers that be in the Golden State will grab ahold of this lifeline.
Once again, Harmeet Dhillon is proving to be one of Donald Trump’s greatest appointments when it comes to the Second Amendment. For those advocates of our right to keep and bear arms who use X as a social media/news platform, if you are not currently following @AAGDhillon, you should. While her department covers other constitutional issues, she is quite prolific when it comes to posting about the Second Amendment.
We will be sure to post updates on any developments regarding California’s ever-increasing slate of gun control laws.
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