A coalition of House Republicans is pressing the Department of War to end what they describe as an outdated federal barrier to Americans Second Amendment rights on land controlled by one of its key agencies.
According to the Daily Caller, roughly two dozen GOP lawmakers, led by Republican Texas Rep. Pat Fallon, sent a letter Tuesday to Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll urging him to order the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to immediately finalize and implement a long-pending rule change first advanced under President Donald Trump. The proposed revision would permit law-abiding citizens to carry firearms on nearly 12 million acres overseen by the Corps, so long as they comply with the firearms laws of the states in which those lands are located.
The lawmakers argued that most federal land managers already recognize the right of citizens to bear arms, and that the Corps is an outlier clinging to a blanket prohibition. [W]hile most federal agencies respect the lawful exercise of Second Amendment rights on their managed lands, it is a different story for USACE-managed lands, they wrote, adding that the Corps is the only major federal land management agency that still maintains a general prohibition on the lawful carry of firearms.
The Republicans traced the dispute back to 2009, when Congress passed bipartisan legislation lifting federal restrictions on carrying firearms on lands administered by the National Park Service. They noted that the Obama administration declined to extend that policy to USACE properties, effectively carving out a large swath of public land where constitutional rights are still curtailed.
Now, millions of public lands remain subject to outdated restrictions that other agencies abandoned long ago, the representatives wrote, framing the Corps rules as a relic of a more hostile era toward gun ownership. They stressed that the current policy is increasingly untenable as more Americans use these areas for recreation, hunting, and travel.
The letter underscored the scale of the Corps footprint, pointing out that USACE manages more than 11.7 million acres nationwide. That portfolio includes 90,000 campsites, 400 lake and river projects and 4,000 miles of trails, meaning the prohibition affects a vast number of ordinary citizens who cross these invisible jurisdictional lines every day.
Public lands form a complicated patchwork of jurisdictions with invisible boundaries that Americans cross every day. While the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management respect our Second Amendment rights, USACE lands remain an outdated exception, Fallon told the DCNF in a statement, highlighting the confusion and legal risk for otherwise law-abiding gun owners. He framed the Trump-era rule change as a necessary correction to bring the Corps in line with other agencies and with the Constitution.
Finalizing this long-proposed rule is critical to align with state law and restore full constitutional protections on Corps lakes, trails, and campsites. American citizens deserve to exercise their God-given Second Amendment rights without arbitrary federal restrictions, the congressman added, casting the issue as both a legal and moral imperative. For conservatives, the demand reflects a broader push to roll back federal overreach and reaffirm that constitutional rights do not evaporate on federal property.
The signatories to the letter span a wide geographic range, underscoring the breadth of Republican concern over the Corps policy. Alongside Fallon, the list includes Reps. Brian Babin, Lance Gooden, Ronny Jackson and Nathaniel Moran of Texas, Nick Begich of Alaska, Buddy Carter of Georgia, Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee, Mike Flood of Nebraska, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Pat Harrigan of North Carolina, Tracey Mann of Kansas, Brian Mast and Jimmy Patronis of Florida, John McGuire of Virginia, Max Miller and David Taylor of Ohio, Barry Moore of Alabama, Burgess Owens of Utah, Jefferson Shreve of Indiana, Pete Stauber of Minnesota, Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, Bruce Westerman of Arkansas and Ryan Zinke of Montana.
Many constituents in our districts enjoy recreational activities on Corps-managed and have reached out to express concerns over this restriction, Fallon and his colleagues wrote, emphasizing that the policy is not an abstract legal matter but a daily reality for their voters. These individuals fish on Corps-managed waterways but are unable to lawfully carry a firearm for self-defense purposes. These are often remote, rural areas with no law-enforcement presence to deter or prosecute crime.
The lawmakers further stressed that public safety concerns extend beyond criminal threats in these isolated regions. Additionally, threats from wildlife are very real in these areas, they emphasized, warning that current rules effectively disarm responsible citizens in precisely the places where they may be most vulnerable. An individual who is lawfully carrying a firearm should not be forced to disarm simply because they crossed an invisible federal line.
Driscoll, who now faces mounting pressure from the right to act on the Trump-era proposal, is also serving as the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) after replacing FBI Director Kash Patel in that role in April 2025. His dual responsibilities place him at the center of a pivotal debate over whether federal agencies will continue to treat the Second Amendment as a negotiable privilege or as a fundamental right that follows Americans wherever they go, including onto land owned by their own government.
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