President Trump’s second term has so far been marked by several handouts to the gun industry. For example, the Trump administration has drastically reduced industry oversight by repealing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) policy of revoking the licenses of gun dealers who willfully violated federal law, ending a program designed to monitor gun dealers who sell the most crime guns, relaxing firearm export restrictions, and reassigning nearly 80 percent of the ATF special agents tasked with investigating gun crimes and policing the industry to immigration duty, among other industry-friendly measures.
The Trump administration has also chipped away at federal gun laws in an effort to bolster gun sales, particularly the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934, which imposed strict registration requirements on machine guns, silencers, and easily concealed firearms commonly used in the “gangland crimes of that era.” As discussed below, gun makers have responded by producing more weapons that were previously subject to enhanced scrutiny.
OPENING tHE FLOODGATE fOR FRTs
Forced-reset triggers (FRTs) are replacement triggers for semi-automatic firearms that automatically return forward, or reset, after being pulled. If a shooter pulls an FRT and holds it back, the gun will continue firing like a machine gun.
For years, the ATF held that FRTs, like the kind made by Rare Breed Triggers for AR-style weapons, were subject to machine gun restrictions and could not be sold to civilians — a position that the Department of Justice had defended in several court cases. But in May, the Trump administration reversed course by entering into a settlement agreement that allowed Rare Breed Triggers to resume selling FRTs. Not only has Rare Breed Triggers debuted new FRTs for AR-style firearms since then, but it has also announced that it will produce versions for AKs and MP5s.
This is not an academic issue. In November, two men were indicted for allegedly plotting a mass shooting in Michigan as part of an “ISIS-linked terror plot.” Court documents allege that the men had purchased several firearms, over 1,600 rounds of ammunition, and at least one Rare Breed Triggers FRT. As this case illustrates, FRTs may appeal to extremists looking to increase their lethality in carrying out such an attack.
Yet gun makers continue to innovate toward danger. As The Smoking Gun found in October, at least two other companies have taken the Rare Breed Triggers settlement as a green light to produce FRTs for Smith & Wesson and Taurus pistols. More recently, a third company — Advanced Reset Technology — debuted FRTs for Glock pistols, as shown in the video below.
Ushering in the Silencer Boom
In July, President Trump signed into law the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which contained a provision repealing the $200 taxes required to purchase or make silencers (or sound suppressors), short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and “any other weapon” (AOW) regulated by the NFA, making it easier for people to obtain these dangerous items. The background checks, fingerprinting, and paperwork required by the NFA remain, but the taxes that had been in place since 1934 will no longer be required as of January 1, 2026.
Silencer retailers have already started preparing for an increase in sales. For example, Silencer Central has spent the past few months advertising that it will pay for customers’ $200 tax stamps as a way to “beat the rush” in 2026. Another retailer, the Silencer Shop, is giving customers $200 gift cards to offset the taxes that will disappear in January.
Manufacturers also debuted dozens of new silencers over the past year, and companies that traditionally focused on other products — like EOTech, an optics manufacturer — have gotten in on the act.
SHORT-BARRELED ASSAULT WEAPONS
During the first Trump administration, gun makers began selling short-barreled ARs, AKs, and other semi-automatic firearms equipped with arm braces — devices that look and can function just like conventional shoulder stocks — but argued that the guns were “pistols” and not short-barreled rifles (SBRs) subject to NFA restrictions. Since then, short-barreled ARs with arm braces have been used in at least five mass shootings — including most recently in Midtown Manhattan, where a gunman killed four people with a short-barreled Palmetto State Armory PA-15 “pistol.” The ATF had previously finalized a 2023 rule clarifying that such weapons are indeed SBRs, but this past July, the Trump administration stopped defending the rule in court, signaling that it would no longer enforce it.
Gun makers have responded by introducing many more short-barreled firearms with arm braces over the past year, like the examples shown below. For its part, Palmetto State Armory introduced a new short-barreled “Guardsman” AR-15 with an arm brace just six days after the mass shooting in Midtown Manhattan.1Palmetto State Armory, “The Guardsman Series – A New Line from Palmetto State Armory,” YouTube, August 4, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEDTBlTiFQs, at 1:40.
In August, the Trump administration also reclassified Franklin Armory’s short-barreled Reformation AR as a conventional “firearm” that was no longer subject to NFA regulations as part of a settlement agreement — the same strategy used with Rare Breed Triggers. Today, Franklin Armory’s website proclaims that the Reformation is “back and better than ever!” and lists four different versions for sale, providing “excellent ballistic effectiveness in a short form-factor and ergonomically familiar AR-style package. Best of all…No NFA Tax Stamp Required!”
Taken together, Trump’s rollbacks may represent a win for the gun industry, but as the Michigan terror plot demonstrates, they have also made it easier for criminals to get their hands on weapons that have been highly regulated for over 90 years — contradicting the administration’s own “tough on crime” messaging and jeopardizing public safety.