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Gun stores received hoax DHS letter declaring suspension of 2nd Amendment

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Claim:

An authentic letter from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem declared a “temporary suspension” of Second Amendment rights.

Rating:

In January and February 2026, an alleged letter from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announcing a “temporary suspension” of Second Amendment rights circulated online. 

The purported letter, dated Jan. 26, 2026, and titled, “Notice of Enhanced Protection Policies for Homeland Security Agents,” justified the suspension as a way to “better safeguard the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during upcoming deployment actions in the Houston, Texas area.” Gun rights advocates have criticized President Donald Trump and other members of his administration for remarks that many people interpreted as suggesting that protesters should not carry guns following the Border Patrol killing of Alexi Pretti in Minneapolis.

An image showing the alleged letter from Noem spread on Threads and X, and was met with a healthy dose of skepticism. Snopes readers also wrote in, asking whether it was real. 

The purported letter reads, in part:

Constitutional rights are a privilege for American citizens, not a guarantee. The United States Government is committed to the protection of the brave government agents who safeguard our borders from the tyranny of foreign invaders, but recently those same agents have found themselves under assault from hostile internal adversaries.

In order to better safeguard the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during upcoming deployment actions in the Houston, Texas area, the United States Government is instituting a temporary suspension of the rights granted by the Second Ammendment of the United State Constitution.

Noem did not send a letter announcing a temporary suspension of Second Amendment rights, as online skeptics correctly suspected. In an emailed statement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives confirmed that the letter “is a hoax.” Therefore we’ve rated this claim as a fake.

ATF also confirmed that the bureau sent an email on Feb. 5 to federal firearms license holders — in other words, businesses that sell firearms — warning them about the letter. Here’s what the email said: 

This is an important message from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. We are aware of the “Notice of Enhanced Protection Policies for Homeland Security Agents” placed on an FFL’s door. We have confirmed with HSI this notice is a hoax. ATF is committed to working with our FFL partners. If you have any questions, please contact your local ATF office. See attached for an example of the hoax.

“HSI” refers to Homeland Security Investigations, the principal investigative arm of DHS. The agency had not responded to our request for confirmation that Noem did not write or sign the letter at the time of publication.

Signs within the letter itself also suggested it was fake. For example, it misspelled “Amendment” as “Ammendment” and “United States Constitution” as “United State Constitution.” Such errors would be unlikely in an official government letter sent to multiple businesses.

It was not clear who sent the letter(s), how many businesses received them or which Texas businesses may have been contacted, as ATF did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about the hoax.

A version of the letter has spread in at least one other state. As first reported by the Vermont Daily Chronicle, Vermont gun shop Green Mountain Sporting Goods alerted ATF that it received a copy of it. 

Green Mountain Sporting Goods told Snopes via email that the business found the document in its mailbox on Jan. 29. 

“Yes, we got the letter. Which, to us, was very obvious; it was a fake,” the store said. 

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Rae Deng

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