A fiery warning from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has ignited backlash from within her own party as Republicans accuse the former Fox News personality of stoking fear among gun owners.
Pirro, Donald Trump’s top prosecutor for Washington, D.C., warned on Fox News on Monday that if anyone brings “a gun into the District, you mark my words, you’re going to jail. I don’t care if you have a license in another district and I don’t care if you’re a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else. You bring a gun into this District, count on going to jail and hope you get the gun back. And that makes all the difference.”
Her remarks sparked fury among conservatives who questioned if such a move was legal.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a frequent critic of the Trump administration, said on X: “The District of Columbia has been ‘shall issue’ since 2017 when the requirement that you must have a ‘good reason’ to carry a handgun was struck down. Non-residents can obtain a permit in DC — don’t ask me how I know."
Under the “shall issue” concealed-carry system, an applicant can seek a permit as long as they meet basic legal requirements. Prior to that, applicants had to show a “good reason” to carry a firearm—such as a documented threat—though a court ruling struck that requirement down.
Hannah Hill of the Gun Rights Foundation also questioned the legality of what Pirro had threatened. “This is a wild, scary thing to hear from a sitting US attorney. Has she even read the Constitution? And if she gets the Second Amendment this wrong, what else is she getting wrong?” she wrote on X.
Rep. Greg Steube, a U.S. Army veteran, said: “I have a license in Florida and DC to carry. And I will continue to carry to protect myself and others. Come and Take it!”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also chimed in, saying: “Second Amendment rights are not extinguished just because an American visits DC. American gun owners who conceal carry are among the most law-abiding citizens in the nation. They are friends of law enforcement; they should not be targeted by law enforcement.”
Pirro’s remarks also attracted attention from Democrats across the aisle. Rep. Brendan Boyle said on social media that he was “Old enough to remember the ‘Obama is going to grab your guns’ hysteria. Turns out it was the Trump White House.”
Amid the outrage, Pirro appeared to try and clean up her remarks on X: “Let me be clear: I am a proud supporter of the Second Amendment. Washington, D.C. law requires handguns be licensed in the District with the Metropolitan Police Department to be carried into our community. We are focused on individuals who are unlawfully carrying guns and will continue building on that momentum to keep our communities safe.”
Gun rights have taken center stage in the wake of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month. Trump and some senior administration officials had pointed to Pretti’s concealed firearm to argue his killing was justified.
“I don’t like that he had a gun, I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines, that’s a lot of bad stuff,” Trump, who previously called himself “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House,” said last week in Iowa.
“You absolutely can walk around with a gun, and you absolutely can peacefully protest while armed,” Luis Valdes, a spokesman for the Gun Owners of America, a gun rights lobbying group, said in response. “It’s an American historical tradition that dates all the way back to the Boston Tea Party.”
The National Rifle Association also issued a statement. “The NRA unequivocally believes that all law-abiding citizens have a right to keep and bear arms anywhere they have a legal right to be,” the group posted on X.
Pirro has also come under fire from members of her own party recently amid her probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Pirro’s probe into Powell focuses on costs tied to renovations of the Federal Reserve’s headquarters and Powell’s 2025 testimony to the Senate Banking Committee about the project. Powell has described the investigation as retaliation for his refusal to comply with Trump’s demands to lower interest rates.
The investigation has drawn criticism from within the GOP, with several Republican lawmakers—including three senators on the Banking Committee—denouncing the move as a politically motivated attack on one of Trump’s perceived opponents.
