ATF in the Crosshairs
(Further opinion on this contentious issue)
By Thomas Gallatin. July 7, 2025
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A recent target of the Trump administration's efforts to downsize Washington's bureaucracy is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Thanks to the Department of Government Efficiency, over 50 ATF regulations have been identified for elimination or revision, which is welcome news for Americans' Second Amendment rights.
According to the ATF, the Trump administration is "reviewing and modernizing its regulations." The agency added, "This modernization project focuses ATF's enforcement on violent criminals, while reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens on lawful gun owners and dealers."
Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin explained, "As Attorney General Bondi has made clear, ATF is working hard to reduce regulatory red tape that burdens lawful gun owners and to ensure agents are doing real police work hunting down criminals and gang members — not knocking on the doors of lawful gun owners in the middle of the night."
However, it's not just regulatory changes that the Trump administration is seeking to implement; it also wants to effectively eliminate the ATF altogether by cutting down the size of its workforce, eliminating roughly two-thirds of the agency's inspectors. Unsurprisingly, this plan has raised objections from anti-firearm groups that see fewer inspectors as problematic because it would limit federal control over Americans' Second Amendment rights.
"As DOGE hacks away at ATF and common-sense gun industry regulations," Brady President Kris Brown hyperventilated, "we will all become at greater risk of being shot and killed wherever we go — from parades and BBQs to schools, grocery stores, and our places of worship."
Hardly. As the data repeatedly shows, more firearms among law-abiding people means less crime, not more.
That said, there are even several pro-Second Amendment groups that have raised objections to the Trump administration's downsizing plans for the ATF. Those objections are focused not on shrinking the ATF but on the plan to merge it into the larger Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Bondi recently touted the merger plan before lawmakers, arguing "guns and drugs go together" and therefore condoning a "great marriage between those two agencies." She added, "They're already working hand-in-hand on task forces. Now, they will be working under one umbrella, and it's going to be great for our country." Bondi contended that this was simply a move that would promote greater government efficiency.
Gun Owners of America called the plan "a dangerous Trojan Horse." Far from abolishing the ATF, the GOA argued that this merger would actually massively increase the size of the ATF. "Just imagine: 3x ATF budget, 4x ATF tactical units, 10,000-plus new employees, reduced oversight and accountability," the GOA asserted.
GOA spokesman Luis Valdes pointed out that merging the ATF with the DEA would actually make it much more difficult for Americans to keep the focus on the federal government's regulatory actions. "Everything they do is watched," Valdes stated, "and it's far easier to control their budget and make sure that they don't grow in scope, budget and manpower to violate Second Amendment rights."
Another Second Amendment-supporting group, the Firearms Policy Coalition, said it "strongly opposes any plan to merge the ATF with any other federal law enforcement agency."
Seeking to cut government waste and over-regulation is a good thing. Eliminating needless anti-firearm regulations is a good thing. But virtually eliminating the ATF via a merger with the DEA appears to create a problem of competing objectives. It creates the negative and often false impression that firearms are tacitly connected to criminal activity. "Where there are guns, there is crime" is a false notion; more often than not, the exact reverse is the case.
The Trump administration should downsize the ATF, but also keep it a distinct and separate agency within the greater DOJ umbrella.
