If you thought the ATF’s war on gun owners was going to slow down under a Republican House, think again.
A new federal funding bill moving through Congress would keep the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) funded at roughly $1.585 billion for FY2026, barely below what it received under Biden.
For context, the ATF’s budget was about $1.618 billion in 2025, meaning the agency is basically being rewarded with the same cash pipeline it used to target law-abiding Americans with Biden-era crackdowns and “rulemaking” schemes.
And here’s the part that should infuriate every gun owner in the country.
House Republicans originally floated funding cuts that would have dropped ATF spending closer to $1.2 billion.
That kind of cut would have forced real consequences. It would have meant fewer agents, fewer raids, fewer “gotcha” prosecutions, and less capacity to treat ordinary gun owners like criminals for paperwork errors and technicalities.
Of course, Texas Gun Rights wants nothing short of abolition, but once the D.C. machine did what it always does, all backbone vanished.
The “cuts” got negotiated away. The pressure got released. The ATF kept its money.
So now, the same agency that spent years acting like Biden’s personal enforcement arm gets funded at near record levels, with few meaningful restrictions on how it can use that money.
In other words, the ATF gets to keep playing politics with a badge.
This Is How “Gun Control” Actually Wins
Anti-Gun policies don’t always come through flashy gun bans in congress.
Sometimes it comes through bureaucracy, budgets, and the quiet surrender of weak-kneed Republicans who talk tough on camera and fold the moment it matters.
You do not need a new gun ban bill when you can fund a weaponized agency to regulate, harass, intimidate, and prosecute gun owners into submission.
That is what this is.
It is the administrative state doing the dirty work that lawmakers pretend they never authorized.
Pro-Gun Lawmakers Are Furious, and They Should Be
Rep. Andrew Clyde and others have been vocal about how pro-gun policy riders and real restrictions were stripped out during negotiations.
Pro-gun groups like Texas Gun Rights, National Association for Gun Rights, and Gun Owners of America are calling this exactly what it is: a betrayal.
And they are right.
Because if Congress will not defund the ATF while it is still operating under the same enforcement culture that attacked gun owners for years, then when exactly are we supposed to believe “change” is coming?
After the next raid? After the next rule? After the next prosecution? After the next tragedy used as an excuse for more power?
This funding bill tells you everything you need to know about Washington.
The ATF has not earned trust. It has earned oversight, restrictions, and budget cuts. Instead, Congress is preparing to keep the money flowing like nothing ever happened.
Gun owners are not paranoid. They are paying attention. And if Republicans cannot even cut funding to a rogue agency that has openly treated the Second Amendment like a loophole, then it is time to stop pretending we are being represented.
That is surrender and it is NOT what Americans voted for when they gave Republicans a trifecta of control in D.C.
Will you help us continue holding squishy Republicans accountable to their pro-gun campaign promises?
