ATF Proposes Birth Sex Field on Federal Gun Form

The Trump administration proposed new rules requiring all new gun owners to list their birth sex on ATF Form 4473 purchase paperwork, according to The Independent. ATF officials confirmed the policy update to Oregon’s Eugene Weekly newspaper in June 2025. ATF officials softened their language in response to questions from The Independent recently.

ATF confirmed they were updating policies in line with President Trump's January 2025 executive order, which declared that the federal government would no longer recognize trans identities. The Department of Justice is weighing rules to bar or restrict trans Americans from owning guns by declaring them inherently mentally unfit to possess firearms.

An ATF spokesperson stated on April 17, 2026, that the agency was updating and simplifying Form 4473 to make it more concise and user-friendly, including appropriate changes to comply with Trump’s executive order.

ATF officials confirmed in emails to Eugene Weekly reporter Eve Weston in June 2025 that firearm purchasers shall identify themselves by their biological sex on the form. As of April 22, 2026, Form 4473 remains the same. Buying a gun from a licensed dealer requires filling out ATF Form 4473, known as the Firearms Transaction Record, which asks the new gun owner to list their sex and ethnicity.

Lying on ATF Form 4473 is a felony punishable by up to $250,000 in fines and five years in jail, or ten years if the lie is deemed material to the sale’s legality. Firearms Transaction Records are held by gun vendors, not the federal government. Federal law prohibits the government from building or maintaining any centralized, searchable registry of gun owners.

High-profile mass shootings involving trans suspects occurred at a Catholic church in Minnesota, a Tennessee private school, and a hockey rink in Rhode Island. The mass shootings killed at least 20 people, including a number of young children, in recent years. Statistics show that the overwhelming majority of mass shooters are young white males.

Fox News host Jesse Watters asked Vice President JD Vance if the militant transgender movement was a domestic terrorist threat in September 2025. Vice President JD Vance said he didn’t know enough about that particular organization but that trans people and left-wingers were increasingly embracing terrorist ideas.

The Department of Homeland Security scrapped rules against spying on people based solely on their gender identity in February 2025.

The Justice Department has subpoenaed hospitals for information about trans patients since Trump’s return to office in January 2025. Republican-run states have sought to compile lists of trans people via their medical records or driver’s license data in recent years.

A surge in LGBT+ people, communities of color, and liberals buying guns and joining gun clubs has occurred due to factors including fatal shootings by federal immigration agents, according to firearms trainers and activists.

Interest in joining Pink Pistols chapters, creating new ones, or reviving old ones surged explosively starting the day after Trump's re-election in November 2024, according to Erin Palette. Erin Palette is the national coordinator of the LGBT+ gun group Pink Pistols. Pink Pistols website listed 49 active chapters this month, a 68 percent increase from November 2024.

The Liberal Gun Club now has 4,500 members with four times as many requests for training, having nearly doubled in membership in the year since Trump was re-elected, according to David Phillips. Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis ICU nurse and anti-ICE protester, was killed by immigration agents while legally carrying a holstered handgun in January 2026.

Federal officials claimed Alex Pretti had been brandishing his handgun, despite video evidence to the contrary.

President Trump said Alex Pretti shouldn't have been carrying the handgun. Members of the National African American Gun Association, LA Progressive Shooters, and A Better Way 2A reported a spike in bookings, inquiries, or membership applications after Alex Pretti’s killing.

Form 4473 was changed during Trump's first term to add non-binary as an option for the sex question, with no objection from the Trump administration before January 2021, according to Erin Palette.

"Just the announcement is going to have a chilling effect," Patrick G. Eddington, a senior fellow in homeland security and civil liberties at the Cato Institute, told The Independent. " Eddington added that the proposed change would put trans people in an "impossible bind" and create a "felony trap" for trans gun buyers.

"If exercising that right requires submission to a government-mandated sex classification that can be used to identify and target a minority group, or chill their lawful conduct, then this policy isn't about safety or identification," Erin Palette told The Independent.

Palette described the surge in interest as explosive, starting the day after Trump's re-election. She noted that the Catch-22 is not a safety measure but a trap.

It is a trap," Palette said. Eddington stated that the policy is "facially unconstitutional" and that the administration is "betraying" gun owners. He believes it may be unconstitutional for ATF Form 4473 to ask any demographic questions at all.

The proposed ATF rule would face the full federal rule-making process, including publication in the Federal Register and a period of public comment. Insiders reported to other outlets that the Trump administration has pushed to expand surveillance by the DHS, such as by amassing smartphone location data from commercial data brokers and automated license plate recognition cameras.

Some said it has eroded internal safeguards in order to do so.

"I've never seen a surge like this before," Thomas Boyer, of Pink Pistols San Francisco chapter, told NPR in November. David Phillips, a trainer for the Liberal Gun Club, confirmed the membership doubling. The National Association for Gun Rights said the spike was now "common knowledge" in the firearms community.

Individuals cited fears of civil unrest and violence from right-wing militants. The killing of Alex Pretti put many progressives on edge. "People join when they’re scared," said NAAGA founder and president Philip Smith.