When a federal agency becomes corrupted by politics, especially unconstitutional politics, something must be done. Government agencies are supposed to treat all citizens equally. A free people should not have to contend with federal agencies being weaponized against them.
Nevertheless, a few administrations have weaponized the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) against our freedom.
The Obama administration’s Operation Fast and Furious gun-running scandal was perhaps the most shocking example of how far ATF leadership, as a sub-agency in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), was willing to go to get the gun control they desired.
Well, the Biden administration’s creation and use of an ATF zero-tolerance policy to put as many federal firearms licensees (FFLs) out of business as they could is a close second.
ATF attempts, under the Biden administration, to reinterpret or write gun-control laws, as if this agency has the power the U.S. Constitution grants the U.S. Congress, offers a series of egregious examples on the weaponization of this law-enforcement agency against citizens.
So then, what is the Trump administration now supposed to do with the ATF?
Perhaps the best answers are in the details. President Donald Trump (R) began substantive change within federal agencies last February with an executive order titled “Protecting Second Amendment Rights,” in which he tasked Attorney General Pam Bondi with implementing changes to get the ATF, and other agencies, back in line with the U.S. Constitution.
Reforms to the ATF, as this was going to print, were reportedly coming fast. Indeed, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reportedly sent lawyers to assist the ATF with the goal of changing or repealing 47 regulations—a reference to President Trump as the 47th president.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been publicly floating the idea of merging the ATF with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). This would likely require congressional approval, but the ATF has been beneath other agencies before—most notably, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Like the ATF, the DEA is also a sub-agency of the DOJ.
From a budgetary standpoint, it is easy to see how consolidating the ATF and DEA makes sense. But some worry that doing so could make the ATF even more powerful, and then, as a supercharged agency, it could be used by a future president with Joe Biden’s politics against American gun owners.
One way or another, however, reform is coming. Bondi’s establishment of a Second Amendment Task Force to advance, protect and promote compliance with the Second Amendment, as President Trump mandated via executive order, as well as changes in senior ATF leadership, indicate that change in the culture within the ATF is well underway.
Indeed, the ATF quickly announced an end to the Biden administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy. They are also reportedly reconsidering the last administration’s final rules regarding “engaged in the business” and “stabilizing braces.”
The ATF also recently issued two new rulings that allow for the importation of non-lethal training rounds, or “simunition” rounds. The training rounds were banned for import in 2023 by the Biden administration.
Indeed, an ATF announcement last May said, in part, that the ATF is “ushering in a new chapter—marked by transparency, accountability, and partnership with the firearms industry. This is not the same ATF of the last four years.”
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