Right before filing suit against Denver, the U.S. Department of Justice rolled back several gun regulations, including reinstating the so-called ‘gun show loophole,’ which allowed people at gun shows to buy firearms without a background check.
The change is meaningless in Colorado, where voters officially closed the loophole in November 2000 by approving Amendment 22 by a 70-30 vote. Following the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, this initiative required background checks for all firearm sales at gun shows, bypassing the state legislature which had previously defeated a similar bill. Three of the four guns used in the 1999 Columbine shooting were acquired at a gun show.
The Biden administration had federally closed the ‘loophole’ in 2024.
The DOJ also rescinded paperwork and other requirements, as well as a 2023 rule restricting pistol braces, attachments that allow a shooter to fire the weapon from the shoulder like a rifle. A federal court had already struck down that rule.
In one of his first executive orders last February, President Trump directed the Justice Department “to assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens.”