Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C. have been instructed to stop filing felony charges against people found carrying rifles or shotguns in the city. This decision marks a major shift from the long-standing approach to gun enforcement in the capital.
The directive, confirmed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro in an email reviewed by The Washington Post, comes under new guidance from the Justice Department and the solicitor general.
A Break From the Past
For years, D.C.’s strict law banning residents from carrying long guns—except under narrow circumstances—was used to bring high-profile cases. Among them was the 2016 “Pizzagate” incident, when a man with a rifle entered a local restaurant, and a 2019 case involving a shotgun attack in Northeast Washington.
The latest shift, however, reflects the Trump administration’s evolving stance on gun laws.
Policy Linked to Trump’s Push
The change overlaps with President Donald Trump’s campaign to expand federal law enforcement in the capital, presented as part of his crackdown on illegal firearms. Officials from the White House highlighted that 68 weapons have been seized since the initiative began.
But this new approach now raises uncertainty about how many of those seizures will actually lead to criminal charges.
Pirro’s Position
Jeanine Pirro, who became D.C.’s chief federal prosecutor earlier this month and is considered a close ally of Trump, emphasized that her office will still aggressively pursue violent crimes, weapons trafficking, and handgun-related cases. Since most of D.C.’s gun prosecutions involve handguns, those cases remain unaffected.
In her statement to The Washington Post, Pirro said the District’s ban on carrying rifles and shotguns is at odds with key Supreme Court rulings that have expanded gun rights. She referred specifically to District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022). Both decisions ruled that firearm restrictions must align with America’s historical traditions of gun ownership.
Pirro declared, “President Trump and I remain fully committed to prosecuting gun crime. But we will do so in ways consistent with the Constitution and the laws of the land.”
