The Trump administration is pushing to make it easier for average Americans to buy guns online and have them shipped directly to their doors, a shift that would fundamentally change how firearms reach consumers across the United States.

The effort has run into surprising resistance from within the firearms trade itself. Small gun stores — the independent dealers who anchor local retail sales — warn that widespread online purchasing with home delivery could upend their business model and disrupt the broader industry.

Beyond the commercial stakes, these dealers argue the policy carries real consequences for public safety. They contend that pulling the transaction away from the licensed counter and into the home weakens safeguards embedded in the current system, where purchases are completed face-to-face at a storefront.

The dispute sets the administration's deregulatory agenda against some of its traditional allies in the gun economy. What might look like a consumer-friendly expansion of access has instead drawn opposition from the small businesses that dominate brick-and-mortar firearm retail, exposing a rare split inside the industry over how guns should be sold and delivered to American buyers.