Trump administration repeals ‘zero-tolerance' gun dealer regulations. What's Florida doing?

Yahoo

11-04-2025

Last year, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on bump stocks — controversial devices that allow someone to shoot hundreds of bullets a minute from a semi-automatic rifle. The ban was passed during President Donald Trump's first term after the deadliest mass shooting in the nation's history when one man killed 58 people at a Las Vegas concert, firing more than 1.000 rounds in 11 minutes.
In response to that and recent moves by the Trump administration to reduce gun regulations, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nevada, and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, on Thursday introduced a bill to ban them again. A previous attempt to reinstate the ban failed last June.
'Nearly eight years after the Harvest Festival massacre we still do not have a federal law banning these deadly devices,' Titus said in a release Wednesday. 'Bump stocks continue to pose a threat to innocent lives and Congress must act. Without a federal law firmly banning them, federal regulations and court rulings could allow bump stocks on our streets and in our neighborhoods, raising the risk of more mass shootings.'
Meanwhile, the Justice Department struck down regulations that targeted weapons sellers who intentionally violated federal law and announced it was reviewing the still-existing ban on stabilizing pistol braces.
In Florida, dozens of firearms-related bills have been filed with varying degrees of success in the Florida Legislature to further restrict or relax the state's gun laws.
In a February executive order, Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine "all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies" for "ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens" put in place during former President Joe Biden's term.
Bondi announced Wednesday the creation of a "2nd Amendment Task Force."
"For too long, the Second Amendment, which establishes the fundamental individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms, has been treated as a second-class right," Bondi said in a memo. "No more. It is the policy of this Department of Justice to use its full might to protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.
Bondi is chairing the task force, with representatives from her staff, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the Office of the Associate Attorney General, the Office of the Solicitor General, the Civil Division, the Civil Rights Division, the Criminal Division, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the FBI, and anyone else she may designate.
The announcement came two days after the Department of Justice and the ATF issued a joint release repealing the Enhanced Regulatory Enforcement Policy established during Biden's term.
Also called the Zero Tolerance Policy, it allowed the ATF to shut down gun dealers who willfully violated federal law by refusing inspections, transferring a firearm to a prohibited person, failing to conduct required background checks, falsifying records or failing to respond to a trace request.
'This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right,' Bondi said.
In data posted in an archived ATF page in January (now deleted), 147 federal firearms licensees (FFLs) nationwide had their licenses pulled in 2024 out of 394 inspections that found violations under the Zero Tolerance Policy, and 74 voluntarily stopped their operations. That was down slightly from 2023 but significantly more than in previous years.
Bondi also said the task force would be reviewing a federal ban on stabilizing braces, which reclassified guns with pistol braces designed to be fired from the shoulder as short-barreled rifles regulated by the National Firearm Act, and a rule that defines what 'engaging in the business' of firearms dealing means.
ATF changed the classification after a series of mass shootings by people using the devices that attach to the back of a gun and strap to the forearm, anchoring and lengthening the weapon and allowing the shooter to shoot one-handed more easily. A man using a stabilizing brace on an AR-15 pistol killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Another used one at a school in Nashville, Tennessee and killed three 9-year-old children and three school staff members. Stabilizing pistol braces also were used in mass shootings in Colorado Springs and in Dayton, Ohio.
On Wednesday, Marvin Richardson, the second-highest-ranking official and a 35-year ATF veteran, resigned after being given the option to leave or be removed, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. FBI Director Kash Patel was also removed as acting ATF director and replaced by Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll. No reasons have been given for the changes.
No. "Bump-fire stocks" were banned here in 2018 when then-Gov. Rock Scott signed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act following the horrific shootings at a Parkland school. Bump stocks were not used in that shooting but were included along with several other gun control measures.
Under Florida Statute 790.222, possession, import and sale of bump stocks — defined as "a conversion kit, a tool, an accessory, or a device used to alter the rate of fire of a firearm to mimic automatic weapon fire or which is used to increase the rate of fire to a faster rate than is possible for a person to fire such semiautomatic firearm unassisted by a kit, a tool, an accessory, or a device" — remains a third-degree felony.
However, one part of the High School Public Safety Act may change. A bill to lower the minimum age from 21 down to 18 moved to the Senate floor Wednesday, one of more than a dozen bills currently moving — or not moving — through the legislature. The various bills would:
Require background checks for the sale or transfer of ammunition
Prohibit firearms in sensitive locations such as healthcare facilities, government buildings, schools, parks, shelters and more
Prevent local governments from declaring emergencies that suspend gun and ammunition sales
Prohibit private sales of firearms unless both parties get background checks
Revise state law to define firearms with bump stocks as machine guns
Allow corrections officers to carry their firearms while off duty
Prohibit the use of AI to detect firearms in public areas
Regulate firearms at school-sponsored events
Reduce the sale of all firearms to people 18 and older and remove the requirement for a hunter safety course to avoid the mandatory waiting period for buying a rifle or shotgun
Allow law enforcement officers to carry concealed weapons at school or athletic events
Prohibit the sale of an assault weapon or large-capacity magazine
Remove all age restrictions to buy a firearm
Most have languished without moving very far, especially bills restricting gun ownership or use.
Regulating guns: 7 years after the Parkland school massacre, is America any safer from guns?
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who spoke out against bans on pistol braces and bump stocks when he was campaigning as a presidential candidate at the end of 2023, has been open about wanting to repeal age requirements and red-flag laws, and allowing open carry.
"It's just a piece of plastic," DeSantis told people at an appearance at the Crossroads Shooting Sports range in Johnston, Iowa. "All of a sudden, people are going to be felons because they have a piece of plastic?" This echoed an earlier talk when he called for a repeal of both federal bans.
In 2023, Florida passed a law to allow people to carry concealed weapons and firearms without background checks, training or a concealed license.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Trump DOJ, ATF repeal Biden-era gun laws. What about pistol braces?