Politics
JUST IN: Trump Hints At Sweeping Expansion Of Concealed Carry
During a question and answer session in the Oval Office on Friday, President Donald Trump reignited the hot button debate over gun rights by offering a bold proposal to expand nationwide concealed-carry laws to cover Washington, D.C.
President Trump articulated the need for the provision to include the nation’s capital so residents have the ability to protect themselves in a city that has been overrun with violent crime for several years.
“People have to be able to protect themselves, especially like in Washington, you walk down the street, a guy comes up and slugs you. He’s got a pistol in his hand. You can be tough, you’re going to be in great shape, you can be a powerful person, or you can be a guy that weighs 100 pounds with a gun in your hand, and I’ll bet on the guy with the gun 100% of the time, right? And so you need protection. So I’m a Second Amendment person all the way,” Trump said in the clip.
The push for concealed-carry in D.C. lines up with the president’s wider agenda to help improve public safety and restore law and order in America’s biggest cities. In March 2025, the president signed an executive order designed to increase the presence of law enforcement and expedite concealed carry permits in D.C.
It’s a move Trump intended to address crime in the nation’s capital head-on. The order also created a task force to streamline the permit process, ensuring that residents could exercise their constitutional rights without enduring undue delays from bloated bureaucracy.
According to a report published by The Washington Post, the proposal will be enriched due to recent changes made in the city’s gun laws. Federal prosecutors announced they would not be pursuing felony charges for possessing rifles and shotguns. When combined with Trump’s advocacy, there could be further improvements made in how D.C. handles gun regulations, slowly moving them toward a more accepting, permissive stance.
Critics, however, are concerned that an expansion of concealed-carry will bring with it an increase in gun violence. The president has dismissed critics, however, stating that, “a person’s Second Amendment rights should not be infringed by local governments.
Supporters of the expansion point toward dropping crime rates in areas where Americans are allowed to exercise their right to own a gun to highlight the importance of regular, every day people being able to protect themselves.
A policy like this, they say, can serve as a model for other places around the country, helping to bring down crime rates that spiked during the previous administration.
