By Tanya Metaksa
What’s New—Trump Administration: Major Policy changes by ATF; End of 99-year Regulation: USPS attempting to allow handguns to be mailed through the USPS; State Legislation: Arizona: Three bills are still viable in the legislature; Connecticut: The Connecticut legislature adjourned at 12:01 on May 7. However, H5043 is on its way to Governor Ned Lamont’s desk; Delaware: Senate Bill 300, which would create a statewide firearm registry and impose burdensome new requirements on gun stores, has been introduced; Illinois: the Glock ban is still under consideration; Minnesota: SF4067, the omnibus judicial branch supplemental appropriations bill, includes the 2026 gun control legislation, which has passed the Senate;. Missouri: The Senate voted yes on SB1421, which included language from SB1078, the original public transit carry bill; New Jersey: A discussion of the Permit to Carry Dashboard and the need for A.222; Ohio: Two bills await consideration. SJR 8and SB214; Pennsylvania: A constitutional carry bill, SB357, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. SB822, a preemption bill, passed the Senate.
Trump Administration: Major Policy Changes by ATF
The Trump ATF has announced three major policy changes, reversing Biden-era firearm regulations and restoring definitions as written by Congress instead of expanding regulatory authority.
ATF’s New Regulatory Approach
The ATF under the Trump administration has adopted a new approach that emphasizes transparency, accountability, and collaboration with the firearms industry and gun owners. The agency is now focused on reducing unnecessary burdens on law-abiding citizens and businesses while prioritizing enforcement against violent crimes involving firearms, explosives, and arson.
Three Major Rules Being Eliminated
- Stabilizing Brace Rule: The ATF is removing the criteria that classified pistols with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles needing NFA registration. The agency is returning to legal definitions and has lost several court cases on this matter. Stabilizing braces bought from trusted manufacturers like Sig Sauer or Springfield Armory should not turn pistols into regulated short-barreled rifles.
- “Engaged in the Business” Rule: The Biden administration tried to include hobbyist gun collectors and weekend traders under federal firearms licensing rules. The new policy limits this definition to match the Gun Control Act’s original scope, so casual collectors who buy and sell firearms occasionally won’t need to get federal licenses.
- Machine Gun Definition (Bump Stock Rule): Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Garland v. Cargill, the ATF is adopting the Court’s interpretation and will not broaden the statutory definition of machine guns beyond what Congress has enacted. This effectively ends the classification of bump stocks as machine guns.
Historical Context
The original bump stock rule during the first Trump administration, while ultimately deemed illegal by the Supreme Court, actually served a pro-Second Amendment purpose by preventing congressional legislation that could have expanded machine gun definitions to include semi-automatic rifles.
End of 99-year Regulation
ABC News seems to be the only news outlet covering this proposed USPS regulatory change. The proposal would permit USPS to mail handguns following a DOJ ruling that the longstanding statutory mailing ban is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
Statutory backdrop
- Since 1927, Congress has banned the mailing of “pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being concealed on the person” through USPS, with limited exceptions, as a crime-control measure. That ban has served both as a federal criminal restriction and as a limit on USPS’s regulatory authority over what can be shipped by mail.
Constitutional posture
- In January, the Department of Justice concluded that this 1927 mailing ban is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment and advised USPS that its existing regulations must be aligned with that conclusion. DOJ’s position suggests that categorical bans on mailing concealable firearms cannot be reconciled with current Second Amendment doctrine and that, at a minimum, the federal government must justify such restrictions through an appropriate historical‑tradition analysis.
Regulatory action
- Following DOJ’s constitutional guidance, USPS has proposed a rule to change its regulations so that handguns can be mailed, effectively implementing DOJ’s interpretation that the historic mailing ban is no longer legally justified.
- The proposal is in the notice-and-comment phase, with interested parties—including state officials—submitting their views to help shape the final regulatory text.
State‑level opposition
- Democratic attorneys general from about twenty-two states have officially objected in a joint letter, urging USPS not to finalize the rule and challenging DOJ’s Second Amendment analysis. Their intervention indicates a willingness by some states to litigate if the rule is adopted, likely arguing that the previous federal mailing restrictions align with historical firearm regulations and are therefore permissible under current Second Amendment doctrine. This letter will most likely become a federal lawsuit.
Legislatures adjourned sine die:
Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
State legislatures not in session: Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, and Texas.
Arizona: Three bills are still active in the legislature. First, SB1058, which prohibits payment processors from using firearm-specific merchant category codes for firearms, ammunition, and components, has passed the House and has been sent back to the Senate for a concurrence vote. The next two bills are waiting action in the House: SB1068 aims to allow Right-to-Carry permit holders to carry their firearms in higher education venues by prohibiting university, college, and community college governing boards from enacting or enforcing policies that disarm these permit holders. Finally, SB1059 modifies state law to remove “muffling devices” from Arizona’s list of prohibited weapons.
Connecticut: The Connecticut legislature adjourned at 12:01 on May 7. However, H5043, a major gun law banning the future manufacture, sale, and importation of many commonly owned handguns, was passed just before adjournment and is now heading to Governor Ned Lamont’s desk. He has 15 days after its arrival to decide whether to sign or veto the legislation.
Delaware: The state legislature, home to former President Joe Biden, has introduced Senate Bill 300, which would establish a statewide firearm registry and impose new, burdensome requirements on gun stores. FFLs would need to create electronic databases tracking every firearm’s make, model, serial number, acquisition and disposition dates, and the identity of each buyer.
Illinois: One anti-Second Amendment bill remains viable—HB 4471/SB 2801, the “Glock Ban,” while HB 4414, the Ammunition Serialization bill, appears to be dead at this time.
Minnesota: SF4067 The committee then transferred all provisions into SF4067, the omnibus judicial branch supplemental appropriations bill. SF4067 is the 2026 gun control legislation. The package includes bans on modern sporting rifles, magazines holding more than 17 rounds, privately manufactured firearms, and certain trigger mechanisms, while also restricting self-defense rights and expanding extreme risk protection order provisions. The bill passed the Senate by a 34-33 vote and now goes to the House.
Missouri: The Senate approved SB1421, which incorporated language from SB1078, the original public transit carry bill. Amendment 30 was added, permitting persons with a valid concealed carry permit to carry on public transit. The bill now returns to the House for concurrence.
New Jersey: In 2024, New Jersey launched the Permit to Carry Dashboard to centralize, publish, and analyze handgun carry permit application data across the state, including anonymized demographics and results. The assembly bill currently in the legislature, A.222, aims to formalize what is now a mostly policy-based reporting system by enshrining it into law, expanding and standardizing reporting requirements—such as denial data by race, ethnicity, gender identity, and reasons for denial—and requiring the Attorney General to compile and publish this information regularly.
History of the NJ Permit to Carry Dashboard
- In March 2024, AG Mathew Platkin and the Office of Justice Data publicly launched the permit-to-carry dashboard to summarize statewide data on handgun carry permit applications.
- The dashboard exists because Attorney General Directive 2023-02 required law enforcement agencies to submit anonymized permit-to-carry data monthly to the Office of Justice Data. Previously, data was stored on paper in individual departments and was not centralized.
- The dashboard displays applications with decisions made on or after December 1, 2019, and provides information about those decisions and the anonymized demographic traits of applicants.
- After Bruen and the subsequent increase in applications, the dashboard became a crucial tool for independent research, highlighting significant racial disparities in subjective denials—NRA‑ILA notes that Black applicants were being denied at nearly ten times the rate of White applicants in some analyses.
- Under the Sherrill Administration, the AG’s office stopped providing timely updates. NRA‑ILA reports that the dashboard remained outdated until gun owners pressured lawmakers in March 2026. After that, the AG reluctantly updated the data through March 31, but has not yet committed to releasing April data.
- Because the dashboard is based on executive‑branch directives rather than statutes, an administration can slow‑walk or freeze updates without clear legal consequences, effectively hiding current licensing outcomes.
- Existing requirements did not clearly mandate reporting the full scope of firearm licensing activities, such as all permit‑to‑carry and FPIC actions, in a consistent format that enables analysis of denial patterns based on suspect class characteristics.
- Outside researchers’ ability to identify racial bias in subjective denials relied entirely on the AG’s ongoing willingness to publish detailed demographic and outcome data; once updates ceased, that oversight function was weakened.
What A.222 would do
Basically, A.222 is a bill focused on reporting and transparency: it doesn’t change key carry standards but mandates clear and consistent reporting on licensing for a “core constitutional right.”
- AG compilation and public reporting duties
- The Attorney General would be legally obliged to collect the submitted data, standardize it across various juridictions and license types, and then license it.
- The AG must then publicly report these statistics—effectively improving and expanding the current dashboard feature instead of keeping it as an optional initiative.
- The bill’s findings section explicitly connects this to post-Bruen concerns about subjective standards and uneven effects on “suspect classes,” using transparency to reveal patterns of discriminatory denial.
- Scope and standardization
- A.222 aims to guarantee that all firearms-licensing activities (PTC and FPIC) are recorded consistently and can be easily analyzed, instead of relying on ad hoc reports based on what the AG chooses to include in a dashboard at any time.
- The statute would essentially establish a minimum dataset for each application, making it more difficult for agencies to omit important demographic or outcome information necessary to litigate discrimination claims.
Thus, A.222 is straightforward legislation that would require accurate reporting on the licensing of a core constitutional right, including denial statistics by race, ethnicity, and gender. The proponents explicitly describe the bill as a necessary fix for the Sherrill Administration’s dashboard stonewalling.
Ohio: After a spring recess that began on March 24, the legislature resumes its session on May 12. Two bills are awaiting consideration. SJR 8 proposes adding a new section to Article I of the Ohio Constitution to permanently protect the right to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife. It is currently pending in the Senate General Government Committee. SB214, which removes “muffling devices” from Ohio’s prohibited weapons list by updating state law, has passed the Senate and is now in the House.
Pennsylvania: On May 6, a constitutional carry bill, SB357, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. The current permit-to-carry system will remain in place. SB822, a preemption bill, was approved by the Senate with a 30-20 vote. The bill now moves to the House for a vote.
