Just as the news cycle was beginning to move past President Donald Trump’s attack on Alex Pretti’s gun carry, Jeanine Pirro has brought the administration right back into the sights of longtime allies in the gun rights movement.
“You bring a gun into the District, you mark my words, you’re going to jail,” the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., told Fox News on Monday. “I don’t care if you have a license in another district, and I don’t care if you’re a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else. You bring a gun into this District, count on going to jail, and hope you get the gun back.”
During Trump’s takeover of policing in the city in 2025, Pirro and other Trump officials touted gun seizures under the city’s unusually tight gun registration and carry laws, which many gun rights groups consider unconstitutional.
This statement is, of course, false. While it’s true that Washington, D.C., has among the strictest gun laws in the nation and doesn’t recognize concealed carry permits from any other jurisdiction, it’s not true that people from outside the city can’t legally carry a gun inside it. The city issues carry permits to nonresidents who complete the required training and pass a background check, just as it does for residents.
The backlash from gun rights advocates pointing out this fact and decrying Pirro’s inexplicable focus on gun owners (whom she herself describes as law-abiding) was swift.
“Once again, this ain’t it,” Amy Swearer, a Second Amendment legal scholar who just left the Heritage Foundation to join Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom group, responded on X.
“It’s very scary that so many in the Trump administration have become Second Amendment hostile,” John Cardillo, a Republican strategist and longtime MAGA booster, also posted to X.
Gun rights groups were equally upset. The Second Amendment Foundation’s Kostas Moros called Pirro’s comments “moronic,” while the National Association for Gun Rights labeled them “unacceptable and intolerable.” The NRA subtweeted Pirro on Tuesday, saying “your right to self-defense should not end simply because you crossed a state line or into Washington, D.C.” Gun Owners of America questioned Pirro’s approach to her job.
“Shall not be infringed. Unless you cross into D.C.?” the group posted to X. “Why are non-violent, law-abiding permit holders being treated like criminals?”
Several Republicans, including Florida Rep. Greg Steube and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, joined the dogpile.
“I bring a gun into the district every week,” Steube, who noted he has a Florida and D.C. carry permit, addressed Pirro in an X post before telling her to “Come and Take it!”
“Second Amendment rights are not extinguished just because an American visits D.C.,” DeSantis said. “American gun owners who conceal carry are among the most law-abiding citizens in the nation. They are friends of law enforcement; they should not be targeted by law enforcement.”
Heck, even some Democrats and gun control activists went after Pirro’s comments.
“Old enough to remember the ‘Obama is going to grab your guns’ hysteria,” Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., responded. “Turns out it was the Trump White House.”
“I never imagined Republicans would be further to the left on guns than I am, but here we are,” Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, replied.
Heck, even some Democrats and gun control activists went after Pirro’s comments.
Pirro attempted something of a walkback on Tuesday. She first posted that her office would focus “on individuals who are unlawfully carrying guns.” Then she told gun owners to “put your safety back on 😉,” and posted a short video making a similar point.
It didn’t go over very well with her intended audience.
“This is not what you said,” Hannah Hill, Vice President of the National Foundation for Gun Rights, responded. “You told us to mark your words, and we did.”
“How about starting over with ‘I screwed up, and I’m sorry,’” Tom Gresham, host of Gun Talk Radio, said. “We will remember [what] you said.” Others brought up a long-simmering complaint gun rights activists have with Pirro’s tenure in D.C.: her willingness to aggressively use D.C.’s restrictive gun laws. During Trump’s takeover of policing in the city in 2025, Pirro and other Trump officials touted gun seizures under the city’s unusually tight gun registration and carry laws, which many gun rights groups consider unconstitutional. “You also have a duty not to enforce unconstitutional infringements on our Second Amendment rights,” Gun Owners of America lobbyist Aidan Johnston replied to Pirro’s video. Then there were accusations of hypocrisy that went beyond the seeming reversal on support for gun rights. After Pirro said Congress needs to act in order for her to stop having to enforce D.C.’s gun laws as strictly as she has been, several people noted she doesn’t take that view of all of the city’s gun laws. “She might have a point if she hadn’t already told prosecutors in her office not to enforce several other D.C. gun laws,” Cam Edwards, editor of the Bearing Arms website, posted to X. “Yes, Congress should act. She can too.” In August, Pirro ordered prosecutors in her office not to file cases over the city’s open-carry ban on long guns or its “high-capacity” magazine ban. “Criminal culpability is not determined by the instruments people employ but by the intent and conduct of the actor,” Pirro said at the time. She has not explained why she believes carrying with a permit or possessing an unregistered gun, both restrictions that most of the country doesn’t have, should be treated differently. Either way, for the second time in just about a week, gun activists came away from the ordeal with a bad taste in their mouths. “Ignorantly thumbing your nose at the right to keep and bear arms and then covering your ass by promoting a bill that still lets you cage and kill people for not having a D.C. permit is definitely a look,” the Firearms Policy Coalition posted to X. The potential consequences of Pirro poking gun activists are clear, and several of those activists outraged by Pirro’s comments were willing to say them outright. As Trump and his party’s polling numbers sink and the midterm elections approach, his administration’s willingness to go after gun owners could come with a steep political cost. “The Trump Administration needs to put a muzzle on certain people (sometimes even Trump himself) because they are doing real damage to perceptions, even as the Admin is making very real progress for 2A rights in a ton of ways,” Moros said. “Do they want gun rights-focused voters to show up in November or not?”
Stephen Gutowski is an award-winning journalist whose work focuses on firearms policy and politics. You can find his writing at The Reload. 
