New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin (D) reacted to United States Attorney General Pam Bondi’s rule blocking a decades-old ATF gun control by calling her actions “absurd.”
On March 19, 2025, Breitbart News reported that Bondi issued a rule reversing the ATF’s ban against the restoration of gun rights. The ban came from an October 6, 1992, amendment put forward by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Schumer’s amendment prohibits the ATF from using funds “to investigate or act upon applications for relief from Federal firearm disabilities under 18 U.S.C. 925(c). ”
Gun Owners of America posted a copy of Bondi’s rule to X, which says, in part:
This interim final rule (“IFR”) amends the Department of Justice (“Department”) relating to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”) by withdrawing effectively moribund regulations regarding how ATF will adjudicate applications for relief from the disabilities imposed by certain firearms laws and withdrawing a related delegation.
Bondi’s rule, which goes into effect today, means gun owners who lost the ability to exercise Second Amendment rights via certain categories of non-violent crime may now petition the DOJ to have gun rights restored.
New Jersey AG Platkin responded to Bondi’s rule with a post to X, writing: “[The DOJ is] putting guns BACK in the hands of violent criminals & domestic abusers. A new rule gives AG Pam Bondi power to let felons possess guns.”
Platkin called Bondi’s actions “absurd and dangerous.”
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, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly: [email protected].
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