Harmeet Dhillon Discusses Trump DOJ’s Strategy For Taking Down Democrat Gun Bans

The Trump administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) is planning to force Second Amendment cases to the Supreme Court, a top official told the Daily Caller News Foundation Monday.

Under Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, the Second Amendment Section of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division was established on Dec. 4, 2025. While lawsuits against Denver, the District of Columbia and Colorado over gun and magazine bans have generated headlines, Dhillon told the DCNF there was a strategy behind the cases the Civil Rights Division brought.

“We’re identifying places where we can help make new law or create a circuit split for purposes of ultimate Supreme Court determination,” Dhillon said.

When two appellate circuits disagree on similar cases, known as a “circuit split,” the Supreme Court tends to be more likely to hear the case to resolve the matter. The challenges to Denver’s semiauto ban and Colorado’s magazine ban are in the Tenth Circuit, which could invalidate the bans, setting up a conflict with other circuits which upheld them, like the Fourth Circuit, which kept Maryland’s semiauto ban in place in a decision rendered by the court.

Dhillon admitted that there were far more potentially unconstitutional gun control laws than the Second Amendment Section could tackle right away.

“I think it’s safe to say that we have many, many targets throughout the United States,” Dhillon said. “We’re familiar with all of these developments. We attend gun shows regularly and gun events. We have an open-door policy here vis-a-vis people who wanna bring things to our attention, but we have to prioritize based on our resources and our other enforcement priorities at the Department of Justice.”

“Every time I announce new action, I get a bunch of people criticizing 🇺🇸US for ‘Now do this, now do that,’” Dhillon added. “I mean, that’s not how we do impact civil rights litigation. We don’t necessarily go after every single target. We have to pick and choose the ones that are gonna make the biggest impact and that there should be a trickle-down effect from that.”

The Second Amendment Section’s establishment traces back to President Donald Trump’s Feb. 7, 2025, executive order directing the DOJ to review government policies and to actively protect the Second Amendment. Dhillon told the DCNF that there was little resistance in establishing the specialized unit with a mandate to enforce the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens, as many attorneys in the Civil Rights Division were “subject matter experts on different topics” and the new section was staffed with “new hires.”

“We had one attorney who joined me when I joined the department who was heading it up originally,” Dhillon said. “We then recruited an expert on Second Amendment litigation to join 🇺🇸US and head it up, and I think people have been very excited to work on this.”

Dhillon pointed out that the Civil Rights Division was investigating the handling of concealed carry permit applications by multiple jurisdictions, with Dhillon announcing a probe into the city of Philadelphia in a Tuesday post on X.

“The police can’t revoke a concealed carry permit based on arbitrary decisions of licensing officials. Today, I directed @CivilRights‘ 2A Section to investigate the Philadelphia Police Department’s practice of revoking the CCWs of those lawfully carrying firearms in public,” Dhillon posted. Dhillon also tweeted at Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger that she would “see you in court” after the governor signed a ban on modern semiautomatic firearms on May 14. 

Dhillon also addressed irritation from some pro-Second Amendment organizations over the DOJ’s defense of provisions of the National Firearms Act against some lawsuits filed by the groups. In April, Gun Owners of America Senior Vice President Erich Pratt criticized the DOJ for opposing the legal cases.

“Since President Trump took office, the Department of Justice repeatedly has undermined the right to own firearm suppressors (or ‘silencers’) and short-barreled firearms restricted by the National Firearms Act of 1934,” Pratt said in written testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

When asked about the pushback, Dhillon told the DCNF that much of the ire with the Trump DOJ was misplaced, adding that the Second Amendment Section was seeking input from gun owners and pro-Second Amendment organizations.

“I understand people have policy differences with DOJ’s enforcement of federal laws, but, in my opinion, and I’ve said this to many gun groups, the appropriate place to launch those policy discussions is in Congress, not with 🇺🇸US,” Dhillon said. “We have, I mean, not me, but other people in this building regularly respond to all kinds of litigation on behalf of the United States where I don’t necessarily agree with what we’re defending.”

“ the other team that picks and chooses which laws they’re gonna enforce, so that’s not what we do,” Dhillon added.

Four states, California, Maryland, Connecticut and New York, have passed laws banning the sale of Glock pistols on the grounds that they can be converted into machine guns. Virginia passed a ban on modern semiautomatic firearms, while Colorado is preparing to implement a permit-to-purchase scheme for so-called “assault weapons.”

While Dhillon refused to specify cases the Second Amendment Section would investigate or pursue in the future, she also said that private parties were welcome to “take our work” for use in litigation against similar legislation in “other jurisdictions.” Dhillon also said that the objective of the Second Amendment Section was clear.

“Every law-abiding American citizen who wants to obtain their firearms for lawful reasons should be able to do that rapidly,” Dhillon told the DCNF. “Here in D.C., it… took me less than a week to get my CCW.”

“We’d like to see, I’d love to see the Supreme Court make it clear that AR-15s and similar semi-automatic rifles that are popular and sought for use by law-abiding citizens… see a definitive ruling on that, making it very clear and striking down contrary laws around the country,” Dhillon added.

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