By Dave Workman
A coalition of six leading Second Amendment organizations has sent a letter to Attorney General Pamela Bondi expressing in strong terms their opposition to suggestion that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives be merged into a single agency.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) and Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) are joined by Gun Owners of America (GOA), Gun Owners Foundation, Gun Owners of California, Second Amendment Law Center and the California Rifle & Pistol Association.
In their joint letter, the organizations write, “Because this merger would seem to be counterproductive to the President’s agenda and, in fact, almost certainly harmful to law-abiding gun owners, we urge you to consider abandoning this proposal and continue to operate ATF as a standalone agency of narrow purpose and limited resource, until such time as all unconstitutional federal gun laws are repealed and the ATF can be abolished.”
This stems from a March memorandum circulated by the Justice Department suggesting the ATF/DEA merger.
Eliminating the ATF has been long talked about within the firearms community and following four years of the Biden administration during which the agency was weaponized against gun dealers with a “zero tolerance” policy which focused on revoking as many licenses as possible for even minor clerical errors, the idea has gained some traction.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb observed, “The ATF has not been friendly to the Second Amendment or America’s law-abiding gun owners, especially over the past four years. The agency has an unsavory history which includes such debacles as Waco, Ruby Ridge and Operation Fast & Furious, and this proposal would open the door to more abusive behavior because the agency budget would increase and ATF would have access to DEA’s greater resources and staffing. As we state in the letter, the result would be a ‘super-entity of gun control enforcers’ which could be used by future anti-gun administrations ‘to target the Second Amendment community in unprecedented ways.’”
GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt said, “This merger proposal is a Trojan horse for gun control—plain and simple. DEA’s expansive surveillance authority and militarized structure would supercharge ATF’s war on the Second Amendment, making it even harder to hold rogue bureaucrats accountable. Gun owners know exactly what’s happening here: the federal government is trying to build a bigger hammer to crush their rights.”
“It should come as no surprise that the ATF has not been a ‘friendly’ agency when it comes to upholding the Second Amendment rights of peaceable citizens” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “Their actions have caused chaos for Federal Firearms Licensees, they have repeatedly wrongfully accused lawful gun owners and, worst of all, their aggressive tactics have caused deaths over perceived infractions. To merge the ATF with the DEA would increase their size and budget at a minimum, exponentially expanding their reach and resources.”
The 10-page letter includes 12 specific reasons why the proposed merger is a bad idea. Among them:
- Conflating Gun Ownership with Drug Crimes Would Taint The Second Amendment with an Appearance of Criminality.
- ATF Access to DEA Resources Would More than Triple the Gun-Control Budget.
- A Merger Would Militarize More Federal Agents Against Law-Abiding Americans.
- ATF Would Gain Unprecedented Intelligence and Surveillance Capabilities.
- Merging ATF with DEA Was Al Gore’s Idea
- An ATF Merger Has Been on the Anti-Gun Activists’ Wish List for Years.
- Past ATF-DEA Cooperation Resulted in Colossal Failure. Does “Fast and Furious” Ring a Bell?
- Blurring the Lines Between ATF and More Popular Agencies Would Insulate ATF from Criticism.
- An ATF-DEA Merger Would Undermine Government Accountability.
- An ATF-DEA Merger Would Dilute the Political Power of Gun Owners, Subordinating Their Interests to Those of “Big Pharma.”
- A Merger Would Waste Precious Time that Would Be Better Spent Implementing the President’s Agenda.
- Any Subsequent Claim that ATF Has Been “Abolished” Through Merger Would Give RINOs an Excuse to Do Nothing.
The letter notes that gun control activists have lamented that, under pressure from gun rights groups, “ATF’s budget has stagnated.”
There is also a reality check of sorts deep in the letter.
“President Trump’s time in of ice is limited,” the letter acknowledges, “and the identity of his successor is unclear. Rather than spending the next three years designing new logos and printing new business cards, ATF’s time would be better spent accomplishing a serious reduction in force, refocusing enforcement efforts on closing down cartels and punishing violent criminals, and rolling back misguided Biden and Obama era regulations. This protection of gun owners is paramount.”
The letter wraps up with this statement: “The undersigned organizations are vocal supporters of abolishing the ATF altogether. But folding ATF into a much larger and more capable agency is hardly an abolishment. For this reason, until Congress eliminates the National Firearms Act and Gun Control Act entirely, ATF should remain precisely where and what it currently is – its own agency, with anemic funding, anemic resources, anemic staffing, and isolated from other law enforcement agencies that largely view ATF as a disfavored stepchild.”
They quickly add, “Other agencies reportedly have called ATF the ‘pond scum of the federal law enforcement community.’ That status should not be changed. Until underlying gun control laws are repealed, ATF should remain a standalone agency, as lean and isolated as possible, to ensure its abuses of the past never happen again.”
Whether ATF can ever be dismantled is a matter of speculation. But what happens if the agency is shuttered? Who will then enforce existing federal gun control laws?
One insider confided to TGM that this is a potentially perilous scenario, because the agency to which that responsibility would undoubtedly be transferred would be better funded, better equipped, better staffed and better able to enforce gun laws which American gun owners dislike or outright despise.
Workman is editor-in-chief of TheGunMag.com
