The gun confiscation lobby is melting down.
After ATF Director Robert Cekada announced a package of proposed rule changes aimed at rolling back some of the Biden administration’s worst attacks on law-abiding gun owners, Everytown and its allies immediately went into panic mode.
Why?
Because for the first time in years, the ATF is not acting like the gun confiscation lobby’s private enforcement division.
That is good news.
But Texas gun owners should not confuse temporary relief with permanent victory.
The same agency now talking about “reform” spent years harassing gun dealers, threatening millions of gun owners over pistol braces, attacking forced reset triggers, expanding federal power over private firearm sales, and helping carry out the Biden administration’s gun confiscation agenda.
So yes, Everytown’s meltdown is enjoyable.
But not because it proves the ATF is fixed; it proves the ATF is political.
And that is exactly why Texas Gun Rights still believes the agency should be abolished.
Everytown Is Furious the ATF Is No Longer Fully Weaponized
According to Ammoland, Everytown blasted the ATF’s proposed reform package as a giveaway to the firearms industry, complaining that gun-rights groups and firearms organizations were present when the reforms were announced.
That is exactly what the gun confiscation lobby does.
When the ATF attacks gun owners, threatens FFLs over paperwork traps, or tries to criminalize millions of Americans through bureaucratic rulemaking, Everytown cheers.
But the moment the ATF starts rolling back Biden-era abuses, Everytown suddenly pretends to care about federal power.
“Everytown is not upset because the ATF was weaponized,” said Chris McNutt, President of Texas Gun Rights.
“They are upset because the ATF is no longer being weaponized for them. The gun confiscation lobby does not want a neutral agency. They want a taxpayer-funded hit squad against lawful gun owners.”
That is the point.
Everytown is not angry because Americans are unsafe.
They are angry because one of their favorite federal weapons is being temporarily restrained.
Good Reforms From a Bad Agency Are Not Enough
Some of the ATF’s proposed changes appear to move in the right direction.
Rolling back the Biden pistol brace rule is a good thing.
Removing bump stocks from the ATF’s machine-gun definition after the Supreme Court slapped down that abuse is a good thing.
Simplifying federal firearms paperwork is a good thing.
Making it harder for bureaucrats to use confusing forms and shifting interpretations to trap gun owners is a good thing.
But none of that changes the larger problem.
The ATF is still the ATF.
An agency that can be used by one administration to criminalize pistol braces can be used by the next administration to do it again.
An agency that can back off FFL harassment under one president can revive the same abuse under the next.
And an agency that can reinterpret the law against gun owners once can do it again the moment the gun confiscation lobby regains control of the White House.
“Gun owners should not have to beg federal bureaucrats to respect the Second Amendment every four years,” McNutt said.
“If your rights depend on who is sitting in the ATF director’s chair, then you do not have rights — you have temporary permission from Washington, D.C.”
Biden Showed America What the ATF Is Built to Do
The Biden administration did not create the ATF’s anti-gun mission.
It exposed it.
Under Biden, the ATF waged war on pistol braces and threatened millions of peaceable gun owners with felony prosecution.
The agency targeted forced reset triggers, treating lawful gun owners and manufacturers like criminals because bureaucrats suddenly decided they did not like a firearm part.
The ATF enforced Biden’s “zero tolerance” policy against gun dealers, threatening FFLs over paperwork errors and compliance issues.
Then came the so-called “engaged in the business” rule — a backdoor attempt to move America closer to universal gun registration by treating more private firearm sales as regulated dealer activity.
Again and again, the ATF used federal power to intimidate, regulate, and criminalize the exercise of a constitutional right.
And when gun owners objected, the gun confiscation lobby demanded even more.
That is why Everytown is angry now.
Not because the ATF went too far under Biden.
But because the ATF is no longer going far enough.
Reform Is Not Enough
Cekada may be saying some of the right things.
Some of the rule changes may be welcome.
Everytown may be screaming because the ATF is no longer doing everything the gun confiscation lobby wants.
But none of that means the agency has been fixed.
Rules that are repealed today can be revived tomorrow.
Every enforcement tool, database, regulatory program, and bureaucratic power left in place can be weaponized again the moment an anti-gun administration takes over.
That is why Texas Gun Rights rejects the idea that the ATF simply needs better management.
The problem is not just who sits in the director’s chair; the problem is the agency itself.
The ATF is an armed federal bureaucracy with a long record of targeting the very people the Second Amendment was written to protect.
No constitutional right should be held hostage by agency rulemaking.
Abolish the ATF
Texas Gun Rights supports rolling back Biden’s anti-gun abuses.
But we are not satisfied with temporary relief.
We do not want the ATF slightly improved.
We do not want the ATF temporarily restrained.
We do not want the ATF managed by nicer bureaucrats.
We want the ATF abolished.
Legitimate criminal enforcement against violent offenders can be handled without maintaining a rogue federal agency whose mission expands every time the gun confiscation lobby wins an election.
Gun owners should not be forced to bankroll the same agency that has spent decades trying to regulate their rights away.
Everytown’s meltdown proves the reforms matter. But Texas Gun Rights’ warning remains just as important: good policies from a bad agency are not enough.
The ATF has been weaponized before.
It will be weaponized again.
So the answer is simple:
Defund it.
Restrict it.
Abolish it.
Chip in today to Texas Gun Rights to help us continue the fight to abolish the ATF and stop the gun confiscation lobby from turning your Second Amendment rights into a government permission slip.
