By Tanya Metaksa
What’s New: The U.S. Senate has confirmed ALL of President Trump’s cabinet nominees; Rare Breed Trigger: ATF acknowledges decision in NAGR v. Garland; Trump Administration: Second Amendment support in DOJ; The Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act, H.R. 1041/S. 478 introduced; Colorado: gun bills on the move; Connecticut: The House Public Safety Committee heard HB7051; Hawaii: SB308 and SB401 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee; Iowa: HR7, SJR7, House Study Bill 200, awaiting floor votes; Minnesota: House Public Safety Committee hearing anti-gun amendments failed; New Mexico: House passed HB12. Hearing for SB 279 (GOSAFE) on Monday, March 5, at 1:30 PM.; North Carolina: SB161 introduced; North Dakota: HB1588, narrowly passed the House; South Carolina: House committee passed H3872, the Hunting Heritage Protection Act; South Dakota, SB81 signed by Governor Rhoden; Texas: SB706, recognizing out-of-state Right-to-Carry Permits, failed in committee: Utah: HB133, failed in committee; Wyoming: HB172 becomes law.
Trump Administration
Cabinet nominations
All Trump Cabinet Nominees have been approved.
- Kash Patel, the nominee for FBI Director, received a favorable vote from the U.S. Senate on Feb. 20, 51-49. The man who discovered the Russia hoax is now in charge of the FBI! As of Feb. 23, many Second Amendment supporters on social media reported that Patel had been named the BATFE’s Acting Director. As reported earlier this year, Steven Dettelbach resigned as Director effective Jan. 18. This story is fluid, and we will keep reporting as information becomes available.
Support for Second Amendment rights
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee) is collaborating with the White House to appoint 43 federal judges who support the Constitution, particularly the Second Amendment.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s chief of Staff is Chad Mizelle, who is married to Judge Katherine Mizelle, who President Trump had appointed during his first term. Judge Mizelle’s ruling came on Feb. 2, 2024, in the United States v. Ayala. She ruled in favor of the Second Amendment in the case of Emmanuel Ayala, a truck driver with a concealed carry permit, who was charged with violating 18 U.S.C. § 930(a) and a postal regulation (39 C.F.R. § 232.1(l)) for carrying a handgun in his vehicle while dropping off mail at a post office. She ruled that the government failed to show that a blanket ban on firearms in post offices aligned with historical traditions of firearm regulation from the Founding Era or Reconstruction. The United States appealed the case, and the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has taken no action.
ATF – Rare Breed Triggers
If you had owned a Forced Reset Trigger, specifically Rare Breed Triggers FRT-15s and Wide-Open Triggers (WOTs), and the ATF sent you a warning notice, and you turned the FRT into the AFT, you should have received a letter from the ATF. This action resulted from the National Association for Gun Rights v. Garland lawsuit. Check out the notice published on the ATF website. The notice includes the following:
“On July 23, 2024, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas held in National Association for Gun Rights et al. v. Garland that Rare Breed FRT-15s and Wide-Open Triggers (WOTs) are not machineguns under the NFA and, as such, their possession is not in violation of Federal law. This posting provides notification of this judicial decision…ATF has begun sending notices to owners of Forced Reset Triggers, specifically Rare Breed Triggers’ FRT-15s and Wide-Open Triggers (WOTs) in ATF custody that were seized as part of an earlier recall effort with instructions to request their return.”
Additionally, Rare Breed Triggers has made a video concerning websites that pretend to be actual websites for Rare Breed Triggers.
National Association for Gun Rights v. Garland:Background: This case was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas on Aug. 9, 2023. One of their plaintiffs is Patrick Carey, who purchased two “FRT 15 – Rare Breed Trigger”(s) before Aug. 22, 2023. Mr. Carey received a “warning notice” dated Aug. 22, 2023, telling him that such items have “been classified as machine guns that were unlawfully manufactured” and that “[p]ossession of these devices is a violation of law due to their illegal manufacture” and that “unlawful receipt and possession of these devices is a felony violation of Federal law.” Mr. Carey, on that same date, surrendered his Rare Breed Triggers to ATF. On Aug. 30, 2023, Judge Reed O’Connor issued a Temporary Restraining Order until either Sept. 27 or such time the Court rules on the Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction. On Oct. 7, 2023, Judge O’Connor ordered a Preliminary Injunction. He enjoined the government against actions against the Plaintiffs, the Organizational Plaintiffs, and their downstream customers of any commercial member of an Organization Plaintiff. Finally, a year later, On July 23, 2024, Judge O’Connor granted summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, striking down the ATF’s FRT ban nationwide. The ruling, influenced by the Supreme Court’s Garland v. Cargill decision (invalidating the ATF’s bump stock ban), found that the ATF exceeded its statutory authority, as FRTs do not enable automatic fire under the legal definition. Now, 18 months later, with a new administration, ATF has waved the white flag. Hopefully, Mr. Carey and many, many others can retrieve their property in the same shape as when they surrendered it.
Congress
The Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act, H.R. 1041/S. 478, has been introduced in both the House and Senate. This legislation has been introduced for at least the last 5 Congresses.
Background: Beginning In 1998, the VA sent veterans’ names to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). This practice was implemented following the passage of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, which mandated background checks for firearm purchases and required federal agencies, including the VA, to report individuals prohibited from possessing firearms under federal law.
All 50 state legislatures are in session in 2025
Additional states convening in March: Louisiana and Maryland.
Colorado: CO Dems just killed HB25-1141, a bill cracking down on repeat retail thieves and gift card fraud, crimes linked to organized crime, fentanyl distribution & human trafficking, but spent a lot of time passing HF25-1133, a bill to ban the sale of ammunition to 18-to-20-year-olds. The Senate State, Veterans, & Military Affairs Committee also passed out 25-003, an assault weapons ban, but it has not been scheduled for the Senate floor.
Hawaii: The Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on SB401, a prohibition of any firearm with the capacity to fire ammunition of fifty calibers or higher, and SB308, which expands the ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds to all guns.
Connecticut: The House Public Safety Committee heard HB7051, a bill to raise the magazine limit from 10 to 15 rounds and allow ranges to sell ammunition for on-site use. Both the 10—and 15-round limits are arbitrary and anti-Second Amendment.
Hawaii: SB308 expanded restrictions on detachable pistol magazines to all firearms, and SB401 prohibited possession of .50 caliber rifles, excluding shotguns, passed in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Iowa: The following bills, which the appropriate committees have passed, are awaiting action in their respective houses: HR7 and SJR7, constitutional amendments to enshrine the Right to Hunt, Fish, and Trap in the state constitution, and House Study Bill 200, which directs the state to develop a firearms accident prevention program for all schools.
Minnesota: On Feb. 26, The Minnesota House Public Safety Committee held a hearing on HF13, eliminating the current duty to retreat law, and HF284, making the Minnesota Permit to Carry forms meet current federal requirements for the NICS process. After several efforts to amend these bills, the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, @mnguncaucus on X.com, reported that three amendments failed by 8-10 votes in the House Public Safety Committee: A safe storage amendment, an amendment to ban lawful carry at the capitol, and an amendment to mandate lost or stolen firearms with criminal penalties.
New Mexico: This year’s GOSAFE Act, SB279, is an anti-Second Amendment bill introduced in the Senate. On Feb. 12, it was reported with a DO PASS by the Transportation, Public Works & Capital Improvements Committee. On Friday, March 1, Senate Judiciary Chair, Senator Joseph Cervantes, announced plans to hear SB 279 (GOSAFE) on Monday, March 5, at 1:30 PM.
On Feb. 25, 2025, the House passed HB12, a bill expanding extreme risk protection orders, by a vote of 41-27. North Carolina: SB161, The Jesesis Firearm Accountability Act, would make it a crime with fines for failing to report a lost or stolen firearm within 48 hours. Additionally, the firearms owner would be charged with the same level of crime if that firearm was used in a felony or misdemeanor.
North Dakota: HB1588, amending North Dakota’s firearms preemption statute to allow localities to create gun-free zones without metal detectors or security personnel, passed in the House 49-43.
Pennsylvania: HB706, allowing local governing authorities to waive Right-to-Carry Permits for veterans, was introduced and assigned to the House Judiciary Committee.
Rhode Island: The Semi-Auto ban, H 5436, may be considered in the General Assembly at any time.
South Carolina: On Feb. 26, the House Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Environmental Affairs Committee passed H3872, the Hunting Heritage Protection Act. It will now go to the House.
South Dakota: On Feb. 24, Governor Larry Rhoden signed Senate Bill 81 into law, protecting the financial privacy of gun owners in South Dakota.
Texas: The Senate State Affairs Committee had a hearing for SB706, recognizing out-of-state Right-to-Carry Permits, but it was not reported out of committee, thus killing the bill.
Utah: HB133, the recodification of Utah’s firearms laws, for Senate consideration. The bill passed the House on Feb. 4 but failed in the Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee.
Wyoming: HB172, which expands lawful carry opportunities across the state by repealing gun-free zones for government meetings and schools, became law without Governor Mark Gordon’s signature on Feb. 27 for an analysis of this victory for the Second Amendment.
