America’s gun owners finally have someone in the Justice Department who sounds like one of us. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told attendees on the SHOT Show floor that the DOJ is no longer treating the firearms industry and lawful gun owners like enemies but is instead working to defend the Second Amendment and roll back regulatory overreach.
Blanche was blunt about the department’s new posture, pointing to the DOJ’s rare intervention in the Hawaii concealed-carry case now before the Supreme Court as evidence that this administration means business. He made clear the DOJ will actively challenge state laws that effectively nullify the constitutional right to bear arms rather than hide behind excuses and kowtow to blue-state political theater.
More than rhetoric, Blanche said the department is preparing updated regulations to protect lawful private sales and to ensure ordinary Americans don’t live in fear of ATF enforcement for minor technical infractions. That promise matters because hardworking citizens and small businesses in the firearms supply chain have been crushed by aggressive, nitpicky enforcement that served to chill commerce and trample rights.
The shift at DOJ is paired with a clear reshaping of the ATF itself, where personnel changes and even proposals to reorganize the agency show that Washington is moving to rein in a once weaponized bureaucracy. Trump officials pushed out longtime ATF leadership and Blanche has pushed internal changes, even floating structural realignments aimed at ending the agency’s politicized approach to law enforcement.
Patriots should be encouraged: this is the corrective so many of us demanded after years of selective enforcement and regulatory theater. For too long the ATF acted like a law unto itself, targeting manufacturers, dealers, and ordinary Americans while sanctifying the left’s political agenda; a Justice Department that recognizes and protects constitutional rights is a restoration of sanity.
Don’t expect the media, the coastal elites, or partisan prosecutors to applaud. They will shriek, litigate, and try to tie the DOJ up in procedure because they have been relying on administrative overreach to chip away at liberty for years. Conservatives must stay loud and organized to defend these real policy wins from the same forces that weaponized the federal government against Americans.
This is a moment for the Second Amendment coalition to stand proud and keep the pressure on our elected leaders to finish the job. The change Todd Blanche describes is a tangible pivot toward protecting constitutional rights, vindicating decades of faithful Americans who have been vilified for exercising those rights. Now is the time to rally, support sensible reform, and ensure the DOJ follows through on turning the ATF from an adversary into a partner for law-abiding citizens.
