Trump Administration to Roll Back Array of Gun Control Measures

The Trump administration is expected to roll back a range of Biden-era gun control measures, including a program to crack down on federally licensed gun dealers who falsify business records and skip customer background checks, according to two people briefed on the move.Attorney General Pam Bondi, under pressure from gun rights groups, is likely to announce this week that she plans to eliminate the “zero tolerance” policy, put in place four years ago, that strips the federal licenses of firearms dealers found to have repeatedly violated federal laws and regulations, the people said.Ms.Bondi plans to order Kash Patel, who is serving as F.B.I.

director and the interim leader of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to review two other major policies enacted under the Biden administration, with an eye toward scrapping both.One is a ban on so-called pistol braces used to convert handguns into rifle-like weapons, and the second is a rule requiring background checks on private gun sales.The moves come at a moment of chaos at a largely leaderless and rudderless A.T.F., whose small work force has been partly redeployed to provide support for immigration raids around the country.

Mr.Patel has spent most of his time running the F.B.I., and the Justice Department has proposed merging the gun agency with the Drug Enforcement Administration, a plan that has left the A.T.F.’s career leadership demoralized.

That, however, is unlikely to take place anytime soon.President Trump campaigned on curtailing gun regulation.In February, he signed an executive order directing the Justice Department “to examine all orders, regulations, guidance, plans” and other actions “to assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens.”In late March, Ms.

Bondi ordered the department’s civil rights division to open an investigation into the potential infringement of Second Amendment rights by officials in Los Angeles County, repurposing...