Second Amendment advocates urge Trump to leash ATF, pick pro-gun director

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Advocates of the Second Amendment are pushing the incoming Trump administration to dismantle anti-gun policies erected by the Biden White House and rein in Washington’s firearms regulatory agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Several gun groups have asked President-elect Donald Trump to abolish the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention when he returns to the Oval Office. Trump is expected to comply.

Lawrence Keane, the senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the industry representative, said, “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.”

Trump is also being pressured to abolish or limit the authority of the ATF. The agency under Biden has become a regulations-heavy anti-gun outfit that targets gun sellers and has been trying to regulate commonly used and owned firearms.

In a speech at a National Rifle Association outdoors convention in Pennsylvania earlier this year, Trump promised action. “Every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day,” he said.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans are feeling more confident they will have a partner in the White House to limit the power of the ATF and the major law it enforces, the National Firearms Act. That act forces the buyers of short-barrelled rifles and suppressors, for example, to register those items and pay a special tax.

Rep. Eric Burlison, (R-MO) told Secrets on Thursday that he plans to offer legislation to kill the NFA and abolish the ATF. Both are uphill battles, but he said he and others joining him feel confident they will make advances against the anti-gun forces.

“I think that the odds are good that we at least move the ball,” Burlison said. He succeeded as a Missouri legislator in changing several gun laws in the Show Me State, and he plans to follow that path of educating Washington lawmakers on how changing the ATF or federal gun laws will be a positive thing for liberty.

Mark Oliva, the spokesman for NSSF, said the group is eager to see a change in anti-gun attitudes 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,” he said.

Gun advocates are also eager for Trump to name a pro-gun ATF director. One name spreading like wildfire on social media is of the “AK Guy,” Brandon Herrera, a firearm maker and YouTube sensation.

In a new video, he acknowledged those supporting him and admitted it would be ironic if he got the job. One reason: He wants to abolish the ATF.

Herrera, who ran for Congress in the Texas primaries this year, said he would be an unlikely choice, though Trump has been picking Cabinet secretaries who have said critical things of the agencies they would run.

“This would be one of the most legendary appointments Donald Trump has ever made,” Herrera said on his YouTube channel.

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But even killing the agency, he and others said, will not address the anti-gun legislation that ATF enforces. That job would likely shift to the FBI, which even fewer gun advocates want.

“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,” warned Alan M. Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.



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