ATF Director Dettelbach Revealing
Change of Course at Harvard

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Director Steven Dettelbach pledged to Congress during his nomination hearing that he'd "use the tools Congress gives me," and committed to "being a fair regulator" of the firearm industry in his role.

That was welcomed after President Joe Biden's first nominee, gun control lobbyist David Chipman, was withdrawn after a disastrous nomination hearing of his own. However, recent comments by Director Dettelbach delivered at Harvard University, where he was a keynote guest, are worrisome. The top-ranking man transitioned from being a law and regulations enforcer to gun control advocate.

Director Dettelbach told an audience at Harvard's "Gun Violence in America," discussion that he agreed with gun control advocates on pursuing a ban on Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) and universal background checks. That's a break from previous Congressional testimony where he testified that he would apply the law, not advocate for new ones.

Unprecedented

Congress writes laws. That's not a fact that Director Dettelbach disputes. He agreed to that in his U.S. Senate confirmation hearings. In fact, in previous testimony, he declined to define the politically-charged term of "assault rifle" that gun control advocates throw about. He even acknowledged that as a prior Ohio political candidate, he campaigned for such bans but explained that defining firearms is reserved for Congress. .....