commentary

Blanche is the DOJ ally the Second Amendment needed

BF
Bearing Freedom
4:00

Todd Blanche just proved he's not Pam Bondi. The DOJ is actively intervening in state Second Amendment cases. They sent a formal letter to Virginia…

The bottom line

Todd Blanche just proved he’s not Pam Bondi. The DOJ is actively intervening in state Second Amendment cases. They sent a formal letter to Virginia threatening to sue. They are treating the right to bear arms as a first-class right instead of a policy afterthought. That is a massive shift from the previous fourteen months.

This article is based on analysis from Bearing Freedom. Watch the original video. This is commentary, not legal advice.

When Pam Bondi left the DOJ, I said we had a genuine fork in the road. The Attorney General’s office can either be your ally or your enemy when it comes to Second Amendment rights. The difference between an administration that actively defends gun owners and one that stays neutral, or worse actively harms you, is the difference between winning cases and losing them.

Bondi failed that test. Her DOJ bragged to Congress about the ATF’s work targeting gun owners. She never completed the Second Amendment report the president ordered. The Civil Rights Division existed but wasn’t deployed as a weapon against unconstitutional state laws. For fourteen months, we watched a massive federal apparatus sit on the sidelines while states like California, Maryland, and Virginia shredded the Constitution.

Todd Blanche just changed the game.

The statement that matters

Acting Attorney General Blanche was explicit about the Trump administration’s new posture. In his remarks, he said this: “When states take active steps to infringe on our Second Amendment rights, we are not going to stand by the sidelines and let organizations have to stand up for themselves.” He continued: “We’re going to step in.”

This is not rhetoric. The DOJ already moved. This week, the Justice Department sent a formal letter to Virginia. Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, put Governor Spanberger on formal notice: if Virginia signs certain gun control bills, the federal government will sue.

Let me be clear about what Virginia is doing. SB 749 and HB 217 would ban AR-15-style rifles entirely. Not magazine-restricted. Not regulated. Banned. Criminalized. Virginia’s package includes over 25 gun control measures, including expanded red flag laws, sensitive-place bans that turn a casual visit to a coffee shop into a felony stop, and broad restrictions on private transfers and possession. This is not incremental infringement. This is wholesale confiscation dressed up in legislative language.

For years, Second Amendment advocates have carried this burden alone. We sue. We fundraise. We fight. The federal government watches. The federal government does nothing. Meanwhile, careers prosecutors at DOJ draft briefs supporting state gun bans.

Now, for the first time in the Biden years and with genuine force in the Trump years, the federal government is using its civil rights apparatus to defend individual liberty instead of restrict it.

Where the real problem lives

I want to be honest about something, because nuance matters here. The majority of serious Second Amendment infringements don’t happen at the federal level anymore. We need to fix the NFA. We need to fix the Hughes Amendment. We need to fix federal suppressor regulations. I am completely on board with that fight.

But in your daily life, your actual constitutional burden comes from the states. California bans most rifles you can legally own. Maryland tried to ban Glocks overnight. Virginia is criminalizing common firearms. New York has de facto banned carry permits. The cumulative weight of state-level infringement vastly exceeds federal restrictions.

This is where the DOJ can actually make a difference. The federal government can’t go after every unconstitutional state law directly, but it can intervene strategically. It can bring civil rights cases. It can sue state agencies. It can send formal legal warnings that carry the weight of the Justice Department behind them. When Assistant Attorney General Dhillon writes Virginia and says “we will sue,” that’s not empty talk. That’s the federal government mobilizing its entire civil rights apparatus.

Compare this to the Bondi era. Her DOJ did not do this. Her department was paralyzed on Second Amendment matters. The Civil Rights Division was not weaponized for gun owners. Litigation was not prioritized.

A needed change in direction

Blanche said something else that matters: “The Second Amendment is not a second-class right. It is a right that’s as important as any right in this country.” He said this is now “the practice and the policy of this administration.”

That’s the difference between an Attorney General who gets it and one who doesn’t. Bondi didn’t believe that. Her actions proved it. Blanche apparently does.

Is Blanche perfect? No. I don’t know what other battles lie ahead in the DOJ under his leadership. But right now, at this moment, we have an Attorney General willing to deploy the full power of the federal government to defend your right to own a firearm. Gun owners are not being told to handle this alone anymore. The executive branch is stepping in.

The proof is on paper. There is a formal letter to Virginia. There is an Assistant AG running civil rights litigation specifically aimed at unconstitutional state gun laws. And there is a public statement from the Acting Attorney General that the Second Amendment is not a second-class right.

Virginia’s governor signed those bills anyway. She didn’t listen to the DOJ warning. That’s her choice. But the bill comes due in federal court now, and the Trump administration is the one writing it. Gun owners do not have to fundraise and organize alone on this one.

This is what an ally looks like in power.

Further reading

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