Rep. Andrew Clyde (R) is leading a coalition of GOP House members urging President Donald Trump to pick an Attorney-General who will “immediately” wipe away Biden-era ATF gun controls.
Clyde and 32 other House members signed an April 21, 2026, letter, asking Trump to choose and A-G who will “immediately cease enforcement of Biden-era gun rules and secure permanent–not temporary–relief.”
The letter then lists three specific rules that the A-G should target:
- Biden’s pistol stabilizing brace rule, which the DOJ continues to enforce against certain
firearms despite pro-Second Amendment injunctions; - Biden’s so-called “ghost gun” regulation, which survived U.S. Supreme Court review only
because the DOJ failed to render the case moot; and - Biden’s engaged in the business (universal background check) rule, which the DOJ has
maneuvered to keep in place rather than pursue full repeal.
Through the letter, Clyde and his colleagues also ask the next A-G to set forth clear guidance, preventing DOJ attorneys from defending unconstitutional gun laws:
The DOJ should not be in the business of defending plainly unconstitutional firearms restrictions, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen. Your next Attorney General should issue clear internal guidance directing DOJ attorneys to evaluate all pending firearms litigation through the lens of Bruen’s text-and-history standard, and to decline to defend laws that cannot survive that scrutiny.
Clyde and his colleagues also ask Trump to choose an A-G who will reform and clean house at the ATF. They view this task as including:
- Purging the ATF of gun-grabbing bureaucrats;
- Opposing any effort to create, operate, or maintain a federal firearms registry in any form;
- Stopping the ATF’s release of sensitive firearm trace data in violation of the Tiahrt
amendment; - Shutting down and deleting the ATF’s illegal, searchable gun registry known as the Out-
of-Business Records Imaging System (OBRIS); and - Reducing NFA application processing times.
Clyde and his colleagues pointed to the support Trump received from gun owners during the November 2024 elections, suggesting he should now support them as they supported him: “Mr. President, American gun owners have been some of your most loyal and enthusiastic voters. They delivered for you at the ballot box, and they deserve to see their constitutional rights respected in return.
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“The roadmap above requires no new legislation – it only requires leadership, will-power, and a Department of Justice that is genuinely committed to your agenda rather than protecting its own institutional inaction.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
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