Trump gun rule could boost GrabAGun and normalize home delivery

The Trump administration proposed a rule on Thursday that would let licensed gun dealers ship firearms directly to in-state customers, a change that could broaden GrabAGun’s reach and lift the value of Donald Trump Jr.’s stake in the company. Buyers would still have to complete an online identity check, pass a background check and wait seven days after local law enforcement is notified.

The proposal would mark a sharp break from the current system, under which most online gun buyers must pick up their purchases in person at a store unless they already hold a permit. The change would push the market closer to ordinary e-commerce and could normalize home delivery in a business that has long depended on face-to-face transfer. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives estimated that roughly half of gun buyers, or nearly 3.3 million people a year, would eventually use the home-delivery method.

GrabAGun sits at the center of that shift. Trump Jr. helped take the online firearms retailer public last year, and he remains a shareholder and board member. His stake was worth more than $700,000, down from more than $5 million last year, making him the clearest direct personal beneficiary if the rule helps the company grow. Marc Nemati, GrabAGun’s chief executive, said the company was still assessing the effect on roughly $100 million in annual revenue.

Supporters of the rule say it would modernize a slow and fragmented buying process for consumers already used to ordering nearly everything else online. Critics say it would widen access to firearms in ways that could raise public-safety risks, pressure local gun stores and blur the line between family politics and business advantage. That overlap has made the proposal one of the most closely watched firearms policy fights of the Trump presidency.

If the rule survives the comment process and is finalized, it would do more than change how guns move from dealer to buyer. It would create a federal policy that could send millions of customers toward a company tied to the president’s family, and it would put Trump Jr.’s investment, already valued at more than $700,000, on the receiving end of a major regulatory change.