As the Second Amendment community continues its campaign to restore lost freedoms, a curious alliance of anti-gun lobbyists and entrenched bureaucrats is doubling down on defending the very agency at the center of decades of regulatory abuse: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Leading that charge is the Giffords Law Center, which recently published a fawning defense of the ATF, desperately attempting to salvage the agency’s reputation amid growing national momentum to abolish it altogether.

The Giffords piece reads more like a campaign ad than a legal analysis.

It praises former ATF Director Steve Dettelbach and lists his two-year tenure as the most aggressive period of gun control enforcement in recent memory. Giffords celebrated his efforts to:

• “Stop the spread of ghost guns”
• “Hold accountable gun dealers who violate federal gun laws”
• “Enforce expanded background checks”
• “Crack down on gun trafficking and straw purchasing”
• “Ensure domestic abusers can’t possess guns”

To the gun control crowd, these are victories.

But to law-abiding gun owners, these are examples of bureaucratic overreach that weaponized federal power against the Constitution and the citizenry.

The ATF’s Long History of Abuse

The ATF was formally established in 1972, but its roots stretch back to the post-Prohibition era.

Originally tasked with enforcing alcohol and tobacco tax laws, its firearms jurisdiction grew alongside the federal government’s appetite for control.

Over time, the ATF evolved into an enforcement arm of anti-gun administrations. The agency became infamous for egregious operations like Ruby Ridge, Waco, and the disastrous “Fast and Furious” gun-walking scandal.

Instead of holding criminals accountable, the ATF turned its gaze toward law-abiding citizens.

Home gunsmiths. Small FFL dealers. Competitive shooters. Veterans. These were the real targets of an agency hellbent on expanding its regulatory reach under the guise of public safety.

Dettelbach’s Anti-Gun Legacy

Under Biden appointee Steve Dettelbach, the ATF launched a full-scale regulatory assault on the Second Amendment.

Giffords celebrates these efforts, but a closer look reveals how these so-called “accomplishments” were both ineffective and unconstitutional:

Ghost Guns: The ATF’s 2022 Frame and Receiver Rule classified unfinished firearm parts as firearms themselves, requiring serialization and background checks. This rule criminalized home gun builders and destroyed the traditional American right to craft firearms for personal use. Criminals, of course, continued to ignore these laws, just as they always have.

FFL Crackdowns: The Biden-era “Zero Tolerance” policy weaponized minor clerical errors to revoke federal firearms licenses from small dealers, devastating family-owned businesses and reducing lawful gun access in rural communities.

Expanded Background Checks: Enabled by John Cornyn’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), the ATF pushed sweeping changes to background check requirements, including opening juvenile records to scrutiny. These background checks did nothing to stop actual criminals, but they did delay and deny lawful purchases by veterans and young adults.

Gun Trafficking and Straw Purchases: Rather than prosecuting actual criminal networks, the ATF inflated statistics and targeted lawful transfers between family and friends. Law-abiding citizens suddenly found themselves under investigation for routine, constitutionally protected activities.

Domestic Abuser Enforcement: The ATF expanded its disqualification criteria based on vague or outdated misdemeanor charges, often decades old. Instead of applying justice evenly, the ATF enforced a guilty-until-proven-innocent policy that removed gun rights without due process.

A Political Agency Masquerading as Law Enforcement

While Giffords laments that the ATF director is now a political appointee requiring Senate confirmation, they simultaneously advocate for a politicized agency that carries out a gun control agenda regardless of who sits in the White House.

You can’t have it both ways.

This hypocrisy exposes the real goal of the gun control lobby: permanent regulatory infrastructure, immune from electoral consequences, to carry out policies that Congress could never pass.

That’s why gun rights organizations like Texas Gun Rights and the National Association for Gun Rights are calling for not just reform, but the outright abolition of the ATF.

Momentum to Abolish the ATF

Legislation to eliminate the ATF has been reintroduced in the form of H.R. 221 by Rep. Eric Burlison.

It builds on previous efforts by Rep. Matt Gaetz and echoes the demands of grassroots activists fed up with executive overreach.

Gun owners are also rallying behind H.R. 335 to repeal the National Firearms Act—the century-old statute that gave the ATF its power to regulate short-barreled rifles, suppressors, and more.

The American people are waking up. They understand that no amount of regulation will stop criminals from breaking the law.

But those same regulations do a fantastic job of harassing peaceful gun owners and turning paperwork errors into felonies.

If Giffords wants to defend the ATF, it should explain why the agency deserves to exist after a half-century of failure, abuse, and constitutional violations.

Gun owners have already made up their minds: no more compromises, no more excuses. It’s time to abolish the ATF and return to a government that respects the Constitution.