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

Americans able to buy deadly gangster weapons' again as lobbying forces key concession from Trump officials

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.