Gun Rights Lawyer Named ATF’s New Chief Legal Counsel

BREAKING

Robert Leider, a Scalia Law professor & Second Amendment legal expert, has officially replaced Pamela Hicks as ATF’s new Chief Counsel. https://t.co/Z5BboQaOFV pic.twitter.com/qqZGsMpZ55

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) March 19, 2025

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) unveiled its new Chief Legal Counsel.

Robert Leider will take over duties as the top lawyer of the ATF. The appointment is a sharp change of course from former Chief Counsel Pamela Hicks. Ms. Hicks’s views on guns were in line with groups like Everytown and Brady. Mr. Leider takes a more liberty-based approach to guns. The appointment of Leider to the position saw an outpouring of joy from gun rights activists.

Mr. Leider was an assistant professor at George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School, where he taught a class on the Second Amendment. Before becoming a professor, he worked for powerhouse law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, LLP. He also clerked for Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. Mr. Leider lists his interests as the right of self-defense and the Second Amendment.

Mr. Leider has written extensively about gun rights with articles tackling such cases as Harrel v. Raoul. Raoul challenges the Illinois “assault weapon” ban. Mr. Leider believes that the law is unconstitutional and should be struck down. He claims that semi-automatic firearms are protected arms. Mr. Leider also highlights that the Second Amendment is not just about an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. He argues that all arms useful for military service should be protected arms.

“Underneath this debate over which “arms” the Second Amendment protects is a critical dispute about the contemporary purpose of the Second Amendment,” Leider wrote. “Illinois is essentially arguing that the Second Amendment exclusively protects individual self-defense against crime. The State understands Heller to have divorced entirely the right to keep and bear arms from the Second Amendment.”

Mr. Leider has also argued against the “Gun Free Zone Act.” The “Gun Free Zone Act” would have made any property within 1000 feet of a school a “sensitive area.” He argued that the law would strip Americans of their Second Amendment rights just because they live near a school. He claims such a law would fail a Bruen test and be unconstitutional.

Mr. Leider also has penned articles that advocated the stripping of qualified immunity from those state officers who resist the Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling. If qualified immunity was removed from these state officers, it could open people like New York State Governor Kathy Hochul to legal action. States have passed laws inconsistent with Bruen since SCOTUS ruled on the case.

“In former may issue states, gun owners will face substantial legal risks when exercising their rights,” Leider wrote. “But the legal risk may not only be on private citizens. Despite strengthening qualified immunity in recent years, the Supreme Court has not shielded government agents who willfully seek to violate the Constitution. New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and California may find that, in bringing down the heavy hand of the State against individuals who exercise their Second Amendment rights, their own police officers will get hit by the blow. “

Mr. Leider also believes bans on the open carrying of firearms violate the Second Amendment. He states that everyone should have the right to open carry. Out of all the changes made to gun control since Trump took office, the appointment of Leider to the Chief Counsel position might be the biggest.

About John Crump

Mr. Crump is an NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people from all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons, follow him on X at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.