Washington, D.C. – Rogue lawyers inside the Department of Justice (DOJ) are actively resisting the Trump administration’s pro-Second Amendment agenda, continuing to fight against Gun Owners of America (GOA) and Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) in federal court over Biden-era gun control policies.
A Policy Repealed—But Not Forgotten
The controversy centers on the Biden administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, a rule that allowed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to strip federal firearms licenses from dealers for minor paperwork errors. The policy was repealed in April, with Attorney General Pam Bondi declaring it had “unfairly targeted law-abiding gun owners.” ATF Acting Director Daniel Driscoll admitted in May that dealers were punished for “simple mistakes such as forgetting to put their license number on forms.”
Yet despite those public reversals, DOJ lawyers have refused to drop their defense of the old policy. According to court filings, they informed GOA that the government has “no plans to abandon its previous arguments” in the ongoing lawsuit.
Gun Owners Foundation Sounds the Alarm
Gun Owners Foundation highlighted the stakes in a statement on X, warning that without a permanent ruling in court, nothing prevents the policy from coming back.
“BREAKING – DOJ is trying to moot GOF’s & GOA’s lawsuit against the Biden ATF’s Zero Tolerance Policy. Without a permanent fix in court, the next President could EASILY re-instate this gun control. DOJ is ‘evading review’ & we will continue to fight!” — Gun Owners Foundation, via X
GOA: The Fight Isn’t Moot
BREAKING@TheJusticeDept is trying to moot GOF’s & @GunOwners‘ lawsuit against the Biden ATF’s Zero Tolerance Policy.
Without a permanent fix in court, the next President could EASILY re-instate this gun control. DOJ is “evading review” & we will continue to fight! pic.twitter.com/zpDuRhRGej
— Gun Owners Foundation (@GunFoundation) July 28, 2025
GOA leaders say the case is about more than just one rule—it’s about stopping the ATF from using executive “policies” to bypass Congress.
“The case is not moot, because an ATF policy like ‘zero tolerance’ is not a law, and does not go through formal processes like notice and comment rulemaking,” explained GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt. He warned that agency bureaucrats could bring back the rule “at a moment’s notice, scrawled on the back of a napkin.”
An Internal DOJ Revolt?
What makes this battle unusual is that the Trump administration itself has already repudiated “zero tolerance.” Even DOJ and ATF press releases now emphasize fairness, discretion, and respect for the Second Amendment. But the lawyers still handling the case are the same ones who defended the rule under Biden—and they’re refusing to let go.
GOA argues this amounts to an internal rebellion: “To rule in Defendants’ favor, this Court would have to overcome Defendants’ own agreement with Plaintiffs’ arguments, ignoring the chorus of support Plaintiffs’ position enjoys from numerous websites ending in ‘dot gov,’” the group wrote in its brief.
The Bigger Picture
This lawsuit is one of several where GOA is pushing for permanent victories against anti-gun policies, including ATF’s “Engaged in the Business” rule and state-level permit schemes used as backdoor gun control. Pratt summarized the frustration bluntly:
“Rather than agree to a permanent and enforceable victory to make sure these abuses never happen again, DOJ has been seeking to preserve maximum government power – the opposite of what President Trump was elected to do.”
