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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Ed Pilkington and Abené Clayton

US firearms examiners declared ‘essential’ shutdown workers after gun-lobby pressure

Firearms
Firearms displayed at a gun shop in Salem, Oregon, in 2021. Photograph: Andrew Selsky/AP

US citizens are free once more to buy some of the country’s most deadly firearms and gun accessories, after relentless lobbying by the gun industry and Republican politicians forced a concession from the Trump administration under the federal government shutdown.

As of this week, gun owners will be able to restart purchases of some of the most highly regulated weapons in the US, with the return to work of federal employees responsible for regulating the items now reclassified as “essential”. They include silencers, short-barreled rifles and vintage machine-guns produced before 1986.

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