The left is already in a hissy fit over President Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, and I’m sure they won’t be happy that there’s another despised government agency that appears to be targeted for downsizing as well.
It’s true. It looks like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)—long despised by conservatives and gun rights advocates—could be seeing its days numbered.
According to a report from CNN, FBI Director Kash Patel, who’s pulling double duty as acting ATF director, has unveiled a bold plan that would gut the agency’s workforce.
FBI Director Kash Patel, who also serves as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, has outlined plans to move as many as 1,000 ATF agents to the FBI, cutting ATF’s agents by more than a third, three people briefed on the plan told CNN.
The move represents a major cutback of the ATF, an agency that long has been in the crosshairs of gun rights groups that believe its work infringes on Second Amendment rights. The ATF has about 2,600 agents and more than 5,000 employees, a number that has remained largely unchanged for years.
This isn’t just some minor reshuffling; we’re talking about a huge shake-up. Of course, the anti-gun lobby isn’t happy about this. They’ve spent years directing ATF policy from the shadows, turning the agency into their personal weapon against law-abiding gun owners and dealers.
Naturally, CNN, being CNN, claims that conservatives are pushing back against this plan.
“After publication of this story and resulting pushback including from Republican allies, FBI officials began to back off aspects of their plan,” the article claims.
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Do you really believe that? I sure don’t. According to the article, “The move is expected to begin with the reassignment of a couple hundred ATF agents to border-related criminal enforcement duty as FBI agents.” What true conservative would prefer these agents harassing law-abiding gun owners instead of being stationed at the border, where they could actually help combat crime and illegal activity?
An ATF spokeswoman disputed that the agents were being reassigned to the FBI and said in a statement Saturday that as a part of the ATF and FBI’s plans to address issues at the southern border, “the ATF will temporarily assign approximately 150 agents from existing field offices to other ATF field offices, where they will continue serving as ATF agents to support the surge initiative.”
“It is important to clarify that this is a temporary reassignment of resources to bolster public safety and combat criminal organizations more effectively. Additionally, ATF routinely initiates surge operations in cities across the country facing significant increases in violent crime,” ATF spokeswoman Ashlee J L Sherrill said in a statement to CNN. “These targeted operations are a proven strategy to disrupt criminal activity, apprehend offenders, and support local law enforcement efforts.”
But eventually as many as 1,000 ATF agents would be given temporary reassignments as FBI agents, though with no end date for the reassignment, the person said.
The left is trying to spin this as some kind of disaster, but here’s the truth: Even if the ATF disappeared tomorrow, its legitimate law enforcement functions would simply transfer to the FBI. The only real losers would be the gun control activists who’ve been using the agency as their regulatory attack dog.
This could be the first step toward a complete FBI-ATF merger—something that’s long overdue. The ATF has become nothing more than a tool for progressive bureaucrats to chip away at our constitutional rights, and who needs it?
While the situation remains fluid, with FBI officials apparently reconsidering parts of the plan, one thing is clear: The days of the ATF as we know it might be numbered. And for freedom-loving Americans who believe in the Second Amendment, that’s something worth celebrating.
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