On Wednesday, the Department of Justice released a new rule that seeks to re-open the long-dormant gun-rights restoration process.

It was the first public result of President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring Attorney General Pam Bondi to review executive branch gun policies. It’s late, and it’s more of a plan to make a plan than an immediate action, but it is a first step toward something gun-rights activists have been pursuing. It came as the Department of Health and Human Services announced it had deleted the outgoing Surgeon General’s 2024 report calling for stricter gun laws from its website–another move gun-rights activists cheered.

However, the administration did something else that’s gotten less attention but does more to foreshadow plans for further regulatory action on guns.

This week, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) updated its website to show that George Mason University professor Robert Leider is now the agency’s assistant director and chief counsel. The ATF didn’t respond to a request for comment on Leider’s appointment, but he’s a well-known Second Amendment scholar and gun-rights advocate. In fact, he’s appeared several times on The Weekly Reload Podcast and penned an analysis piece for us about what the Trump Administration should do with the ATF this time around.

So, his views are pretty well established. Let’s take a look at some of what he’s said.

“Instead of using their political capital to try and dismantle the ATF, gun advocates would likely see more success working within the system,” Leider wrote at The Reload in December. “While federal firearms laws cannot be repealed by executive action, they still delegate significant power to the Attorney General (who subdelegates to ATF) on how the laws are implemented. The Trump Administration could shift many ATF policies in their favor.”

During the campaign, Trump promised to roll back President Joe Biden’s ATF rules during the first week of his presidency. That means the pistol-brace ban and used gun sales rule are likely candidates to be rescinded. Same for the “ghost gun” kit ban–although the Supreme Court may have its say on that before the administration acts.

Of course, Trump hasn’t stuck to his promised timetable. He also hasn’t made gun policy a top issue since taking office, despite pushing the boundaries of politics and law in many other areas through his first few months in office. The review process he ordered could also serve as a way to pick and choose which of the priorities gun-rights activists have they want to address, especially given Bondi’s history of backing some new gun restrictions.

But appointing somebody like Leider to a position like ATF chief counsel suggests gun-rights activists won’t necessarily have to rely on the whims of Trump or Bondi to see the kinds of reforms they’re looking for. With a regulatory expert in place who is committed to using that expertise to roll back restrictions, it’s more likely to happen even without prodding from above. Picking a professor with deep knowledge of the laws and rules that govern how ATF operates is more likely to produce workable reforms than picking another TV star or podcaster whose talents are more apparent on camera than in the federal register.

Additionally, Leider has already mused on some places where Trump could turn ATF’s powers to gun-rights advocates’ advantage. Instead of just rescinding the Biden-era ATF rules–something that will still require time and expertise to accomplish–Leider has suggested other ways to dismantle some gun restrictions under current law.

“Although federal law restricts the importation of firearms without a finding that the firearms are useful for sporting purposes, ATF determines what constitutes ‘sporting purposes’ for firearm importation. The Trump Administration is no more bound to the ATF’s definition of sporting purposes from the Clinton Administration than the Clinton Administration was bound by the Reagan Administration’s definition. Consequently, there is nothing stopping the Trump Administration from having a more expansive conception of what constitutes a legitimate sporting purpose.”

He further noted that it was within Trump’s authority as president to simply reverse the ATF’s current approach to industry inspections and other enforcement efforts.

“The Trump Administration can also guide how ATF exercises its investigative and prosecutorial discretion over federal firearm licensees,” Leider wrote. “This could include reversing the Biden Administration’s ‘zero tolerance’ policies that have led to federal firearms licensees being revoked over minor paperwork violations.”

All in all, he argued that the most effective approach gun-rights advocates could take to the ATF under Trump’s new administration would be to work within the system.

“Reforming federal firearms policies requires extensive technical knowledge of administrative law combined with a pragmatic and realistic policy agenda,” he wrote. “If gun advocates want to translate their electoral success into tangible policy changes, they will need to work within the regulatory state that many of them despise rather than trying to overthrow it.”

Now, Leider will be the one in charge of navigating the ins and outs of that regulatory state. His appointment is the strongest indicator the Trump Administration will push forward with the rule rollbacks Trump promised and may do much more than that. Given the margins in Congress make significant statutory reforms unlikely, that’s probably the best chance gun-rights advocates have for meaningful gun policy reforms for at least the next two years.

Of course, we’ll still have to wait and see if Leider can deliver.