Trump 2.0’s Quiet War on Gun Safety
Trojan Silencers, Rapid-Fire Mods, and the Gutting of the Science and Enforcement
In 2024, America averaged more than one mass shooting per day. That year alone saw 586 mass shootings, resulting in 711 deaths and over 2,300 injuries, according to the Gun Violence Archive. These weren’t isolated tragedies. They were a steady drumbeat of trauma that bled through schools, grocery stores, churches, and public gatherings.
And yet, while the blood dries, Washington is not responding with urgency, restraint, or reform. Instead, the Trump administration and Republican allies in Congress are doing the unthinkable: greenlighting the very tools that make these massacres easier to commit and harder to survive.
They are:
Eliminating the federal tax on silencers, a device designed to muffle gunfire.
Reversing the ban on rapid-fire triggers, allowing semi-automatic rifles to simulate machine guns.
Gutting background checks and regulatory enforcement.
Dismantling the very office tasked with preventing gun violence.
“These policy choices are not just out of step with public safety — they are deliberately engineered to appease the gun industry at the expense of American lives.”
— Emma Brown, Giffords Law Center
This isn’t policy drift. It’s a coordinated rollback of accountability, a quiet war on the last threads of federal gun regulation in a nation already drowning in bullets.
We just hit 13,000 subscribers—thank you! We’re offering full access to The Coffman Chronicle at 50% off to celebrate.
Get exclusive analysis and fearless reporting you won’t find in corporate media.
The Budget Bill: A Trojan Horse for the Gun Lobby
You wouldn’t know it from the headlines, but buried deep in the proposed 2025 Republican budget bill is a gift-wrapped present for the gun lobby: a $1 billion tax break for silencers, devices designed to reduce the sound of gunfire. The bill would eliminate the $200 federal tax on these accessories. That tax isn’t a Biden-era holdover or a progressive grenade. It has existed since the National Firearms Act of 1934.
Silencers don’t make guns silent, but they do make them harder to detect, especially in the chaos of a mass shooting. Police officers and security experts have warned that they can delay emergency responses and make it harder to identify where shots are coming from. So why offer a massive financial incentive for their proliferation?
Because this bill isn’t about balancing a budget; it’s about sneaking ideological wins into must-pass legislation.
“We’re not just talking about bad timing. We’re talking about deliberately loosening gun laws while the country reels from mass shootings on a near-daily basis.”
— Igor Volsky, Executive Director, Guns Down America
This isn’t an isolated proposal. It’s one line in a nearly 1,000-page bill that also:
Raises taxes on asylum seekers,
Adds work requirements to Medicaid,
And defunds programs like the IRS Free File system for taxpayers.
However, the silencer tax repeal stands out because it has nothing to do with fiscal policy. It’s a fringe priority for the gun industry, and now it’s on the table, thanks to backroom budget politics.
It’s deregulation by disguise—a Trojan horse with a suppressor screwed on the barrel.
Rapid-Fire Trigger Settlement: Legalizing Machine Gun Functionality
While Congress debates silencers, the Trump Department of Justice has already made a quiet but explosive move: it settled a lawsuit with Rare Breed Triggers. This company manufactures forced-reset triggers (FRTs), devices that allow semi-automatic rifles to fire at speeds comparable to machine guns.
Under the Biden administration, these devices were classified as illegal machine guns under the National Firearms Act. The ATF had begun seizing them, warning they posed an unregulated and deadly risk. However, under Trump, the DOJ reversed course. The settlement:
Allows FRTs to be legally sold again,
Requires the government to return previously seized devices, and
Effectively nullifies the ATF’s authority to regulate rapid-fire modifications.
“These devices were created specifically to evade federal law while replicating the deadliest aspects of machine guns. The fact that DOJ settled — rather than defend public safety — is a disgrace.”
— Nick Suplina, Everytown for Gun Safety
This isn’t just a rollback. It’s an open door to militarized firepower in civilian hands. With FRTs back on the market, it’s now easier than ever to turn a legal rifle into a pseudo-machine gun, with almost no oversight.
Combine that with the potential elimination of silencer taxes, and the picture becomes clear: the Trump administration is making firearms faster, quieter, and deadlier, all by design.
Dismantling Federal Oversight from Within
Gun violence doesn’t just happen in a vacuum. It thrives in systems that are too slow, weak, or politicized to respond. The Trump administration isn’t just deregulating firearms; it’s disarming the very institutions designed to protect the public.
The First Casualty: The Office of Gun Violence Prevention
Established by President Biden in 2023, the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention was the first of its kind. It is a centralized federal body tasked with coordinating state and local responses, funding community-based programs, and elevating gun violence to its rightful place as a public health crisis.
In early 2025, Trump shut it down.
“The Office of Gun Violence Prevention was doing exactly what Americans are asking for — treating gun deaths like the preventable epidemic they are. Dismantling it isn’t policy; it’s political sabotage.”
— Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action
With its closure, funding pipelines to violence interruption programs, public health research, and community education initiatives vanished almost overnight.
Then They Erased the Truth
On June 25, 2024, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a historic advisory: gun violence is a public health crisis. It was a declaration grounded in decades of data — that guns had become the leading cause of death for children and teens, and that addressing this epidemic required a comprehensive, trauma-informed, prevention-first approach.
But less than nine months later, the Trump administration scrubbed that advisory from federal websites, following an executive order framed as “protecting Second Amendment rights.”
It took decades of advocacy to call gun violence what it is.
It took less time than to grow a child to crush that truth.
And now, that child can’t be protected because the system built to defend them was dismantled before it could even begin.
This is how you gut a country’s ability to respond to crisis:
Kill the data.
Cut the funding.
Silence the experts.
And all while loosening the laws that make the crisis worse.
Gutting the Background Check System
One of the most chilling moves: narrowing the federal definition of “fugitive from justice.”
Under prior law, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) flagged anyone with an active warrant regardless of geography. But Trump’s DOJ changed that. Now, unless a person has crossed a state line to evade arrest, they are not considered a fugitive.
A person charged with assaulting their spouse, with a warrant out for their arrest, can now legally buy a gun. If they never leave the state, they’re not a “fugitive.” But once armed, they can become a killer.
“This policy gives abusers, stalkers, and violent offenders a green light. It’s not just negligent — it’s lethal.”
— Ruth Glenn, CEO, Survivor Justice Action
Over 500,000 fugitive records were purged from the background check system in total. The legal threshold may be arbitrary, but the consequences are not.
Meanwhile, Enforcement Is Being Dismantled
Trump’s ATF deprioritized oversight of the “bad apple” gun dealers responsible for most crime guns. This designation includes dealers known for poor paperwork, violating wait times, and failing to follow regulations. These sellers are now less likely to be inspected, even as ATF and FBI leadership are reportedly advised to scale back focus on domestic threats, including political violence.
So now the background checks are weaker.
The dealers are less accountable.
And the law enforcement agencies are being told: don’t look too closely.
It’s deregulation on both sides of the transaction, and now, a blindfold on the watchdog.
See our previous reporting on this change to ATF here:
The Broader Strategy: Deregulation Disguised as Freedom
This is not about the Second Amendment.
It’s not about individual rights.
It’s about building a legal architecture where:
Weapons are easier to buy than books in some districts,
Accountability is harder to find than ammunition,
And the very agencies tasked with tracking threats are told to stand down.
“This isn’t policy. It’s an ideological pipeline — from the factory to the firing pin, from deregulation to disaster.”
— Fred Guttenberg, gun safety advocate and father of Parkland victim Jaime Guttenberg
VII: Conclusion & Call to Action – This Is Not Freedom. It’s a Firing Line.
What do you call a government that:
Legalizes rapid-fire devices as mass shootings rise?
Cuts taxes for silencers while cutting Medicaid?
Purges records from the background check system?
Dismantles the office that treats gun violence as a crisis?
And tells the FBI to stop tracking domestic threats?
That’s not governance. That’s abandonment—strategic, calculated, and deadly.
We waited years to call gun violence a public health crisis.
They crushed it in less time than it takes to grow a child.
And now, that child can’t be protected.
Take Action Now:
Contact your lawmakers and demand accountability.
Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
Find your representatives: https://www.congress.gov/membersBreak the silence. Share this piece. Share the facts.
Support organizations like Giffords, Brady, Everytown, and Survivor Justice Action.
We know what it takes to reduce gun violence.
We’ve had the data. We’ve had the tools.
What we’re missing is the courage.
Now is the time to find it.
We just hit 13,000 subscribers—thank you! We’re offering full access to The Coffman Chronicle at 50% off to celebrate.
Get exclusive analysis and fearless reporting you won’t find in corporate media.
Bibliography:
Gun Violence Archive. “Mass Shootings in 2024.” Accessed May 19, 2025.
Reuters. “US Republican Budget Proposal Has Removal of Gun Silencer Tax in Its Sights.” May 14, 2025.
Washington Post. “Trump Administration Strikes Deal to Allow Sales of Rapid-Fire Gun Modification.” May 17, 2025.
CeaseFirePA. “Statement on President Trump Eliminating the Office of Gun Violence Prevention.” February 2025.
NPR. “U.S. Surgeon General Declares Gun Violence a Public Health Crisis.” June 25, 2024.
Democracy Forward. “Demanding Answers on Why the FBI Purged 500,000 Fugitive Records from Background Check Database.” Accessed May 19, 2025.
Just Security. “Trump Repeals DOJ Zero Tolerance Policy for Rogue Gun Dealers.” April 2025.
Reuters. “FBI Scales Back Staffing, Tracking of Domestic Terrorism Probes, Sources Say.” March 21, 2025.
Vox. “The Ugly Truth About Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill.” May 19, 2025.
Giffords. “Trump Administration Deletes Surgeon General Webpage with Advisory on Gun Violence.” March 2025.
 | A guest post by
|
There is no possible reason for anyone in America to possess a machine gun. These would be used for mass shootings. Full stop. I participate peaceful protests and I envision these guns turned on us, not to mention deranged school shootings. I also can see Trump carrying out another J6 when he is voted out in 2028, but this time using these machine guns.
Thanks for keeping track of this. You’re the first and maybe the only ones reporting on this. Sharing it widely.