By Tanya Metaksa
What’s New—Trump Administration: The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), under the Trump administration, has announced a final rule expanding hunting and fishing access across the country to more than 87,000 acres in the National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and National Fish Hatchery (NFH) Systems; Gun Prohibition Proposals by senior Justice Department officials: Constitutional rights must be upheld; Disinformation: Lee Williams article on The Trace; Good Information: Rob Doar of the MN Gun Owners Caucus not only posted on X.com but also contributed an op-Ed in the MN Star Tribune newspaper after the tragedy at The Annunciation Church shooting; BATFE (ATF)
Retired ATF agent now works for Everytown”; State Legislatures: California: On Friday, August 29th, the California Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees advance several anti-gun bills that could receive floor, votes; Illinois: Governor Pritzker, who has never vetoed a gun law, just signed SB8 into law; Michigan: HB4843, a bill banning Tasers for personal use, was introduced on September 4, 2025, and referred to the Committee on Judi
ciary.
Trump Administration
Department of the Interior
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), under the Trump administration, has announced a final rule expanding hunting and fishing access across more than 87,000 acres in the National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and National Fish Hatchery (NFH) Systems. This expansion creates 42 new opportunities—tripling previous figures and quintupling units—highlighting conservation, outdoor recreation, and efforts to reduce regulatory burdens.
Secretary Doug Burgum highlighted hunting and fishing’s role in preserving lands, boosting the economy, and upholding American traditions. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is opening or expanding access at 16 NWR units and one NFH unit in states including Alabama, California, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington. Notable additions include inaugural hunting at Southern Maryland Woodlands NWR and sport fishing at North Attleboro NFH.
Administrative Actions follow President Trump’s executive orders on deregulation and public land access. USFWS Director Brian Nesvik praised the move for supporting wildlife management, stewardship, and local economies while protecting America’s hunting heritage.
Gun Prohibition Proposals by senior Justice Department officials
As I read the news reports of the Trump DOJ “weighing proposals” to prohibit gun ownership by transgender people, I was very disturbed. As one who has been in this fight since pre-1968, I agree with Alan Gottlief when he said this proposal was “disturbing.” I have argued against politicians who have stigmatized those of us who own and use firearms for hunting, shooting, and self-defense. Alan’s comment, as reported in Dave Workman’s article CCRKBA Opposes Trans Gun Ban Over Minneapolis Shooting should be a reminder to all gun owners:No government official should deny Constitutional rights to any group of people in the US.
Disinformation
Disinformation takes many forms, but most of it from the Second Amendment-hating lobby tries to distort pro-Second Amendment information, regardless of the source. Lee Williams, known as The Gun Writer, and Dave Workman of thegunmag.com report on how The Trace, a strongly anti-gun and anti-Second Amendment publication, discusses how The Trace is using a six-year messaging study by NSSF to suggest messaging that could persuade American gun owners to accept proposals like “universal background checks, red flag laws, and even a gun registry.”
Good information
Rob Doar of the MN Gun Owners Caucus not only posted on X.com but also contributed an Op-Ed in the MN Star Tribune newspaper after the tragedy at The Annunciation Church shooting. Congratulations to Rob for an excellent Op-Ed, which can be found here.
BATFE (ATF)
Retired ATF agent now works for Everytown”
Lee Williams, noted firearms and Second Amendment author, wrote an article about Marianna Mitchem, a former high-ranking official at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). At the end of the article, he writes,
“Attempts to contact Mitchem were not successful. Her cell phone has been disconnected and changed. Voice messages, emails and texts left with Everytown were not returned.”
Williams wrote this article after talking to a former senior official—who did not want their name used in the story…the former senior official who spoke out …said now that she’s gone, there is only one anti-gun senior official left at the ATF.
Williams’ source describes Mitchem as intelligent and communicative but staunchly anti-gun. Her influence grew under ATF Director Steve Dettelbach, appointed by President Joe Biden. Labeled “Dettelbach’s puppet” and “superstar,” she spearheaded the frame-or-receiver rule and initiatives against “ghost guns”—unserialized firearms. Critics allege errors in her approach: the ATF’s ghost gun database improperly included pre-1968 firearms (exempt from serialization) and homemade guns legal in some states. Law enforcement submissions lacking serial numbers were added without verification, undermining the database’s credibility. Despite this, the Biden administration leveraged it for anti-gun advocacy.
Although most gun owners know that ATF agents are not pro-Second Amendment, this analysis demonstrates what one needs to espouse to succeed at this agency. After all, she went from an IOI, Industry Operations Investigator in 2005, to becoming the chief of the Firearms and Explosives Industry Division in 2020, with a definite bias against the industry she was hired to manage, according to the laws passed by Congress. It is good that she’s the next to last official with an anti-gun bias, but the ATF is an agency that needs to be, at the least, split into a regulatory-only branch and a criminal branch. Or better yet, disbanded.
State Legislatures
The following states are still in SESSION:
California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin
California: On Friday, August 29th, the California Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees advanced several anti-gun bills that could receive floor votes.
AB1078: limiting firearm purchases for California residents to three firearms per 30-day period, after their one-gun-a-month law was deemed unconstitutional.
AB1127: prohibiting FFLs from selling certain semi-automatic pistols.
AB1263: makes it a crime to cause another person to engage in the unlawful manufacture of firearms.
SB248: requires the DOJ to send a letter to certain firearm transferees warning them of the “risks of firearm ownership.”
Illinois: Governor J.B. Pritzker, who has never vetoed a gun control law, just signed SB8 into law. This troubling bill mandates that all firearms in a home, vehicle, building, or other structure must be kept locked so they are not accessible to anyone under 18.
Michigan: HB4843, a bill banning Tasers for personal use, was introduced on Sept. 4 and referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
North Carolina: The veto override vote of SB50 is scheduled for the House floor on Sept. 22.
