Republicans Eye Gun Measures in Trump’s First 100 Days

Donald Trump’s return to the White House means a lot of things to a lot of people. Not all of them are good, admittedly, but for gun owners, the news is mostly good. We’re not likely to see some of the assaults on the Second Amendment we’ve dealt with repeatedly over the last four years.

Honestly, at this point, if nothing else happened, that would probably be enough for many.

But it doesn’t look like that’s where the Trump administration or congressional Republicans are going to halt things.

A president’s first 100 days are important. It’s when they try to fulfill all the promises they made on the campaign trail, and for Trump, that includes guns.

Having won the election and sweeping to power, Republicans are planning an ambitious 100-day agenda with President-elect Donald Trump in the White House and GOP lawmakers in a congressional majority to accomplish their policy goals.

The four federal gun violence prevention efforts Trump could dismantle

The four federal gun violence prevention efforts Trump could dismantle

The 2024 presidential candidates couldn’t have been further apart on gun policy. Vice President Kamala Harris called for universal background checks and an assault weapons ban, while former President Donald Trump favors loosening concealed carry laws nationwide.

Though neither platform is likely to clear Congress, Trump’s victory could give him the power to dismantle three years of gun violence prevention measures enacted under President Joe Biden, who has arguably done more to try to stem gun violence than any president in decades.

“In my second term, we will roll back every Biden attack on the Second Amendment—the attacks are fast and furious—starting the minute that Crooked Joe shuffles his way out of the White House,” Trump told National Rifle Association members gathered for a convention in Dallas in May. 

The Trace shares a look at the Biden-era policies most likely to be on the chopping block. Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

These include bouncing Steve Dettelbach out of the top office at the ATF, ending the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, repealing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and repealing the Biden gun control executive orders.

In truth, most of those could be dealt with on day one, really. Those are all executive-level actions that Trump can do with a stroke of his pen.

Repealing the BSCA will take a little more effort, and I’m not sure it’ll happen.

Oh, I think they can get a repeal through the House, but while Republicans now have a majority in the Senate, the Democrats still have the filibuster. I don’t see them just shrugging off this supposedly super-important gun control law’s repeal simply because they opposed the filibuster with every fiber of their being until the moment it was clear they lost the Senate.

No, that one’s going to take some work. I’m not sure it’ll happen, either, though I suspect a few things can be picked apart here and there via other bits of legislation. 

Still, it’s a strange new world and I’m really interested to see how quickly some of this happens.