Second Amendment advocates, and any liberty-loving American who remembers a better time before the Biden Administration, have been rejoicing since the call of the 2024 election in favor of President Donald Trump. As he is known to do, the President-Elect is wasting no time getting the ball rolling, making cabinet appointments and promising to undo the wrongs of his predecessor as early as his first day on the job. With his return to the Oval Office and seemingly solidified stance on protecting American gun rights, a huge topic of discussion has been the incoming president’s selection of a new Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and how this appointment could reshape the country’s Second Amendment landscape.
Gun rights groups have already started making requests to President Trump, abolishing the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention being among the first. Unsurprisingly, it looks as if that request has already made its way onto a checklist, as one of President Trump’s goals this time around is to trim some of the proverbial bureaucratic fat. Lawrence Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, seems to agree that a good place to start is where taxpayer dollars are being spent on efforts to erode their own freedom.
“Nowhere else, within the U.S. government, are taxpayers forced to fund efforts to denigrate their rights protected by the law. This office was established to appease the special-interest gun control lobby and donors,” says Keane.
Moving forward naturally, we find ourselves on the doorstep of the ATF, where the debate amongst Constitutional conservatives is whether or not to abolish the agency or limit its authority. Under the Biden administration, the ATF has become a heavy-handed anti-gun outfit, targeting gun owners and sellers while attempting to regulate commonly used and owned firearms in defiance of recent United States Supreme Court decisions. While many of these attempts have failed, with courts overruling the ATF’s efforts, the cost of constant litigation is an undue burden on taxpayers.
Representative Eric Burlison, (R-MO) is no stranger to fighting and beating the anti-gun lobby, having succeeded as a state legislator in changing several Missouri gun laws. He has now set his sights on Washington, planning to propose legislation to end the National Firearms Act and abolish the ATF. While these are sure to be uphill battles, colleagues want to fight alongside him, providing confidence that advances against the anti-gun agenda can be made.
“I think that the odds are good that we at least move the ball,” Burlison said.
While most of us would love to see a bright neon “out of business” sign on the front door of the ATF, this could be a more nuanced proposition with pitfalls to beware of. Killing the agency off will not address existing anti-gun legislation, therefore shuffling enforcement duties to another agency, likely the FBI, which is an even less attractive outcome.
“Abolishing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives will not solve the problems. The underlying laws and regulations will still be there and transferred to a bigger and more well funded agency like the FBI with more manpower to enforce them. Be careful for what you wish for,” warns Alan M. Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.
On the other hand, Republicans on Capitol Hill are more confident than ever that their incoming partner in the White House will support efforts to limit the ATF’s power, especially when it comes to the NFA, which governs the purchases of short-barreled rifles and suppressors, making Americans pay a special tax for heavily restricted access to their own rights.
Perhaps some of that confidence can be attributed to a speech at a National Rifle Association convention in Pennsylvania earlier this year where then-presidential candidate Donald Trump made a promise that had to have the pinkos shedding a tear and dying their hair blue.
“Every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day,” Trump said.
A spokesman for the NSSF, Mark Oliva, says the group is eager to see changes at the ATF and in Washington.
“NSSF believes the ATF needs a course correction. The next ATF director should serve the public by dedicating the agency’s resources to targeting, arresting and bringing to justice those criminals who illegally traffic firearms and threaten community safety,” Oliva said.
So, who should be at the helm if the ATF is truly headed for a course correction? I’m glad you asked because I have an endorsement for the position that may make even more liberals follow Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi’s lead in leaving the United States. That full-throated totally heterosexual endorsement goes to my friend, the “AK Guy” himself, Brandon Herrera, an idea that was recently floated out there, more tongue-in-cheek than actual suggestion, though as I think about, it actually makes sense..
Brandon Herrera is a very successful YouTuber whose accomplishments and commitment to the Second Amendment reach far beyond the scope of that anti-American video platform. Brandon is also an accomplished firearm builder and the man responsible for the AK-50, an almost decade-long effort to produce a functional and high-performing .50 caliber AK-based rifle. Brandon also dipped his foot into more official political waters this year, running for Congress in the Texas primaries, and while his presence in the House would have been joyously and disruptively based, I have to admit that seeing him made ATF Director might just be the most epic appointment of all time.
In a recent video on Brandon’s YouTube channel and covered on TTAG, he acknowledged his public support and pointed out the irony of being made the head of an agency he wishes to abolish. I can see it now. Welcome the new boss, NOT the same as the old … Far from it.
While he feels he would be an unlikely candidate for the position, Brandon’s distaste for the agency might be exactly what President Trump is looking for, as he has been choosing cabinet secretaries critical of the agencies they would run.
“This would be one of the most legendary appointments Donald Trump has ever made,” Herrera says on his YouTube channel. I agree, however, I’ll say it would be among the most legendary appointments of any president ever.
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