Justice Department's New Second Amendment Civil Rights Division Promises to Stop Assault on Gun Rights
The Trump administration is fulfilling a day one promise to protect gun owners and our Second Amendment rights.
Under President Donald Trump’s direction, the Department of Justice is working to fortify the constitutional right to keep and bear arms by creating a landmark Second Amendment civil rights division.
The move is the newest in a series of executive actions that fulfill Trump’s commitment to defending gun owners—one of his earliest promises while still on the campaign trail. The new division, led by Acting Chief Andrew Darlington, will target unconstitutional state and local laws, placing particular emphasis on challenges related to concealed carry permitting.
"For the first time, the DOJ Civil Rights Division and the DOJ at large will be protecting and advancing our citizens' right to bear arms as part of our civil rights work," said Department of Justice official Harmeet Dhillon. "As Attorney General Pam Bondi has said, the Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and I couldn't agree more with my boss."
The new division will identify and correct the numerous burdens placed on the American people by Democrat lawmakers across the United States. Alongside streamlining the concealed-carry process, the division plans to target jurisdictions that outlaw firearms protected by the Second Amendment, address unreasonably long delays, and promote gun rights for all—including women and people with disabilities.
"We will be protecting that right here in this Department of Justice," said Dhillon. "The president issued an executive order making this clear just two weeks into his tenure, and I've been working on the Second Amendment section ever since I got here to the DOJ."
🚨Great news — I’m excited to announce the new 2A section of @CivilRights!
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) December 8, 2025
The right of law-abiding American 🇺🇸 citizens to keep, bear, & use commonly known firearms is fundamental, and this @JusticeDept has a lot of 2A work planned, in addition to what we’ve already done! pic.twitter.com/L4Acg72k7A
(RELATED: Shutdown Shows We Must Scale Back Bureaucratic Infringement of Gun Rights)
2A Under Trump
In February, President Trump signed the Protecting Second Amendment Rights executive order, which called on the Department of Justice to review the current state of the Second Amendment and make suggestions for strengthening the people's right to bear arms.
As a result, the Justice Department began to crack down on the Los Angeles Police Department for denying residents their rights. Out of thousands of permit applications, the vast majority remained unprocessed for many months—sometimes years—meaning law-abiding citizens couldn’t exercise their Second Amendment rights.
The Trump administration also took steps to roll back Biden-era policies that were deemed unconstitutional. The administration replaced the Biden-era "Zero Tolerance" policy—which shut down gun stores at record numbers—with a compliance policy that aims to assist gun dealers and not punish them for minor clerical errors.
Shortly after taking office, President Trump abolished the Biden-created White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention—an unprecedented office in the executive branch that many Second Amendment advocates argued was a backdoor foothold for gun-control groups to sway firearm policy.
"This gun control bureaucracy had no place in the White House, and it should never have been created. Its supporters are having fits on the Internet, which convinces us that President Trump’s swift action was correct," said Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Gottlieb described the office as "a shadow government office established because Congress rejected [Biden’s] extremist agenda of gun bans, gun registration, and other Second Amendment infringements."
(RELATED: When Lawmakers Fail, the Supreme Court Has an Obligation to Uphold Safety in America)
Three More Years
The Second Amendment is more secure than it has been in many years, but the Trump administration cannot pump the brakes now.
Many blue states continue to persecute law-abiding Americans for practicing a God-given right, while purple states like Virginia are now in the crosshairs of the gun-control lobby under the leadership of Democratic Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger.
The Department of Justice’s Second Amendment Civil Rights Division must focus on the states that continue to violate the landmark Supreme Court decisions in Bruen and Heller. These decisions remove any doubt in firearm policy by once again declaring that the right to bear arms is constitutionally protected.
The Bruen decision further clarified that all gun laws must exist within the historical tradition of firearm regulation—something lawmakers often forget while concocting their latest wild attempt to infringe upon the Second Amendment.
The Trump administration has followed up on its day-one promise to safeguard gun rights, but there is still much left to be done before Americans' right to bear arms is fully restored.
(READ MORE: FBI-Suppressed Data Shows Armed Citizens Stop Over 50% of Active Shooters, Not 3.7%)
