By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
Special to Liberty Park Press
The millions of law-abiding Americans who have chosen to carry a concealed firearm are putting “everyone involved at risk,” the ATF announced this week in a tweet on X.
“Take a look into our world. This is a scenario @ATFWasington frequently faces when combatting violent crime and maintaining public safety. Many people attempt to conceal firearms on their person or belongings which puts everyone involved at risk. #MakeDCSafeAgain #ATF,” the ATF tweeted on X.
As you can imagine, ATF’s message received hundreds of overwhelmingly negative responses including many that are not fit to reprint.
“Concealed carry is not the issue—you are. Millions of law-abiding citizens carry concealed every single day without incident. Concealed carry saves lives. Disarming people and vilifying them on social media doesn’t,” Ammoland News posted.
Noted Second Amendment scholar and attorney Mark W. Smith asked a prominent Justice Department civil rights attorney in a tweet to “speak with the Washington ATF field office about the Second Amendment and the Bruen decision. I suspect their social media person lacks the relevant knowledge.”
Aiden Johnston, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, tweeted “Try reading Heller, McDonald, Bruen, and the Second Amendment again, tyrants.” In his tweet, he added a picture of the Bruen decision.
The Firearms Policy Coalition tweeted simply: “Your existence puts everyone at risk. AMIRITE?”
“Times have changed. This isn’t 1934,” firearms trainer and author Ranjit Singh tweeted.
The ATF posted their tweet at 9:05 a.m., Thursday.
Twenty-seven hours and thirty-seven minutes later, the ATF “corrected” their tweet.
“EDIT-Take a look into our world. This is a scenario @ATF Washington frequently faces when combatting violent crime and maintaining public safety. Many CRIMINALS attempt to conceal firearms on their person or belongings which puts everyone involved at risk. #MakeDCSafeAgain,” the ATF posted.
Takeaways
Most gun owners will not buy ATF’s response, changing “Many people …” to “Many CRIMINALS …”
The reasons for this is simple: We all know too well that the ATF has never understood the massive difference between law-abiding gun owners and criminals.
To the ATF, everyone who owns a firearm is a criminal. This has become their modus operandi. They treat every single gun owner as a criminal.
If you need proof, look at the ATF’s recent history. Look at how they treated Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, Mark “Choppa” Manley, Russell Fincher or Brian Malinowski.
The ATF sent their SWAT teams to raid the homes of all four men, but not a single illegal item was found, even though Adamiak is serving a 20-year sentence for made-up crimes, and Malinowski was shot and killed in his home by ATF Agent Tyler Cowart.
That the ATF actually views concealed-carry as a crime is not a surprise. What is surprising is that no one has done anything about it, at least not yet.
It is definitely time for President Donald J. Trump to end the ATF.
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