Trump Orders DOJ to Drop Appeal of 'Gangster Weapons' Ruling in Landmark Second Amendment Win

President Donald Trump personally directed the Justice Department to stand down and let a federal court ruling take effect that lifts nearly a century of permitting requirements on short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns and silencers, people familiar with the decision said. The call hands Second Amendment advocates one of the largest regulatory rollbacks in modern American history and ends weeks of internal debate inside the department.

The practical result is immediate. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) can no longer enforce the challenged provisions of the National Firearms Act (NFA) against the gun rights groups, businesses and individuals who brought the case -- or against their current and future members and customers. The deadline to appeal the ruling is Oct. 5, and the president has made clear he does not intend to use it.

Trump also told Republican members of Congress during a series of calls in recent weeks that he would ensure the Justice Department did not contest the decision, according to sources familiar with the discussions. That promise is now the policy.

What the Texas Ruling Actually Did

U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee in the Northern District of Texas, ruled on Aug. 5 that the regulatory scheme built on top of the 1934 National Firearms Act could not survive once Congress removed the tax that gave the law its constitutional footing. Lawmakers zeroed out the $200 transfer and making tax on short-barreled shotguns, short-barreled rifles and silencers in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed in July 2025.

The judge's opinion was blunt about the consequences of that vote. "Because today's NFA does not generate any revenue from untaxed firearms, its regulatory provisions cannot be upheld under the taxing power," Hendrix wrote, adding that "the challenged NFA provisions are unconstitutional" because they exceed Congress's enumerated powers.

He also made clear where the fix belongs. "Efforts to render the NFA constitutional must come from Congress, not this Court," he wrote. In other words, if lawmakers want the old registration and fingerprinting regime back, they have to pass it themselves -- a bar the current Congress shows no appetite to clear.

Fifteen Republican-led states joined the consolidated lawsuits, along with Gun Owners of America (GOA), the Gun Owners Foundation and individual plaintiffs. Hendrix limited his permanent injunction to the parties, their members and their customers, which is why a $25 annual GOA membership now carries concrete legal weight for gun owners in covered states.

A Promise Kept on the Second Amendment

The decision did not come easily. Career and politically appointed lawyers across several Justice Department offices disagreed with Hendrix's reasoning and warned that letting the ruling stand would strain federal firearms prosecutions and conflict with the department's long-standing duty to defend statutes passed by Congress. The president weighed those objections and sided with the Constitution as the court read it.

He was not alone in pressing the case. Nine Texas Republicans in Congress formally urged newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche not to fight the decision, arguing that the department should not spend taxpayer dollars defending a tax scheme Congress had already repealed.

Republicans celebrated the outcome as a generational win. "The Trump administration has delivered a decisive victory for the Second Amendment," Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said. Rep. Andrew Clyde has called the ruling the greatest restoration of Second Amendment rights in a century, pointing to the collapse of the $200 tax and the registration regime that came with it.

Gun rights advocates see a broader principle at work. A federal agency cannot keep enforcing a regulatory apparatus after the revenue mechanism that justified it disappears -- a limit on administrative power that reaches well beyond firearms.

Where the Limits Still Fall

The ruling is narrower than some headlines suggest. It does not touch America's most popular firearms, including AR-15-style rifles and Glock pistols, which are regulated under a separate federal framework. Background check requirements and prohibitions on possession by convicted felons remain fully in force for the weapons covered by the injunction.

Machine guns and explosive devices are also unaffected and stay under the NFA's original regime. Hendrix's order covered all but two categories of specialized firearms regulated under the law, leaving the most dangerous classifications intact.

Prosecutors are adjusting in real time. In one Alabama case, the Justice Department dismissed an indictment against a man charged with receiving an unregistered silencer after his defense lawyer argued he had joined one of the plaintiff gun groups after the injunction issued. Federal attorneys made clear they disagreed with that reading -- and announced new charges against the same defendant for illegal possession of a machine gun, a category the injunction does not reach.

Critics of the ruling argue that silencers and short-barreled weapons make it harder for law enforcement and bystanders to detect gunfire, and gun control groups have called the decision a failure to protect public safety. Supporters counter that the weapons involved account for roughly 5 percent of closed federal gun-trafficking investigations, and that law-abiding owners should not carry a regulatory burden Congress already voted to lift.

What to Watch Before October 5

The clearest near-term question is whether anyone else tries to pick up the appeal the administration has declined to file. States or counties that are not parties to the case could ask the court for permission to intervene, and any such effort would face an uphill fight on standing.

Congress is the other path. Lawmakers could reinstate the tax or write a fresh regulatory statute, but doing so would almost certainly require Democrats to retake both chambers -- a tall order in a midterm year where Republicans are defending a narrow majority.

What gun owners should watch is whether the Justice Department formalizes its position in writing, and whether other federal courts adopt Hendrix's reasoning in their own NFA cases. If they do, a ruling that began in a Lubbock courtroom could quietly redraw the line between what Congress taxes and what federal agencies may regulate for years to come.