By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
A secret cabal of unelected bureaucrats operating in the bowels of the White House is the real architect of Joe Biden’s war on our guns, and none are ever held accountable.
Susan Rice, Barack Obama’s former national security advisor, played a leading role in this Star Chamber of civil rights abuse, until she abruptly left the White House last month. Rice, who served as Joe Biden’s domestic policy advisor, didn’t even bother to hide her frequent meetings with members of the gun-ban industry, such as Giffords, Brady and Everytown. She was that brazen and unafraid of consequences.
Since its inception, the clandestine group’s work has been used in a myriad of ways. Some became the basis for Biden’s anti-gun platform, speeches and talking points. Other ideas went straight to federal agencies, such as administration’s loyal lapdogs at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Does anyone believe that the ATF – the most overly politicized law enforcement agency in the country – would take on pistol braces without specific instructions from the White House? Of course not, but this time it backfired.
Gun owners and the courts swiftly rebuked plans to ban the plastic, aftermarket firearm accessory that the ATF twice said was perfectly legal, until they were pressured by Biden’s White House to change their findings.
More than 40 million law-abiding Americans had until last month to register their pistol braces with the ATF or become felons overnight. It’s estimated that less than 1 percent actually complied and completed a Form 1. That’s an embarrassment national in scope.
U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle made matters worse for the Administration in SAF, et.al. v. ATF, et. al, when she ruled that Second Amendment Foundation members who owned pistol braces were protected from ATF enforcement actions by a preliminary injunction. Members of other pro-gun groups received similar protections. SAF, Gun Owners of America and the Firearm Policy Coalition all experienced dramatic upticks in membership as a result. It became clear to everyone involved that ATF issued the rule because they knew a law banning pistol braces would never make it through Congress.
Some have speculated the public flogging would give the White House’s anti-gun zealots reason to rethink or even slow their bans and other actions, but the group is well insulated from public scrutiny. Even after a humiliating loss no one holds them accountable. And Biden, if pressed, can always blame the “AFT.”
While Biden should face consequences for most of his administration’s unconstitutional gun-control efforts, Joe wouldn’t know a pistol brace if one suddenly appeared at the bottom of his oatmeal bowl. Anymore, his only real purpose is to be led by the hand onstage once or twice a week, armed with a fistful of flashcards that tell him when to sit, stay, roll over and shake hands.
Meanwhile, the real brains behind the White House’s war on guns remain cloaked in anonymity. They’re as ruthless and cunning as a mafia hitman, and completely unanswerable to the public. Their actions are a direct affront to Congressional authority and the separation of powers, since they help ATF write and then enforce its own rules, which carry penalties indistinguishable from actual criminal statutes.
To be clear, when Biden’s White House pipes the tune, the ATF obediently starts to dance, and no one is ever held accountable.
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