By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
OPINION: If you’re an ATF agent who supports the constitution and has never violated your oath of office, the time to start looking for a new job is now.
An agency-wide comeuppance is coming. It is only a matter of time.
The next administration will not look kindly upon your current role as Joe Biden’s anti-gun enforcers. The people will see to that. Americans have long memories, you see, and we are keeping track of your civil-rights abuses – each and every one.
If you’re lucky, the ATF will only be abolished, but there are a growing number of law-abiding Americans – including many in law enforcement – who believe criminal charges should be filed against you, your leadership, and their co-conspirators in the Biden-Harris administration. This is what happens when you knowingly follow illegal orders, like warrantless search and seizures, multiple civil rights violations, theft of personal property and a host of other unforgiveable crimes.
The Great Awakening has begun. Judges are pushing back against ATF’s unconstitutional regulations and bogus FFL revocations. Lawmakers are demanding investigations after ATF agents violated their constituents’ civil rights. Even the legacy media now realizes that they have been hoodwinked, and that many of ATF’s enforcement actions are illegal.
The best part is that now every unconstitutional “rule” ATF proposes is met with a bevy of federal lawsuits from pro-gun organizations. ATF’s constant misdeeds have created a hivemind of sorts among the country’s Second Amendment watchdogs.
Rampant criminalization
The Biden-Harris administration weaponized the ATF right from the start. One of their goals is to criminalize possession of commonly owned firearms and firearm accessories, in order to turn millions of law-abiding Americans into felons who are unable to vote. The best example is ATF’s pistol-brace fiasco.
For more than a decade the ATF had no problems with pistol braces, and even issued several official letters stating that braced pistols were not short-barrel rifles and did not need to be registered under the NFA. But after Biden weaponized the agency, the ATF changed its mind, of course.
Biden and ATF created an unconstitutional mechanism whereby ATF can now criminalize anything they want, and Biden will use his veto power to block Congress from stopping the overreach. Our only recourse is the courts, and that process can be both lengthy and expensive and offers no guarantee of success. There are some who claim that an ATF rule is not a law, but anything that can land you in federal prison for a decade is law-like enough.
Every official involved in ATF’s criminalization schemes needs to be held accountable.
A history of violence
After a brief respite, the ATF has started raiding again, using it’s highly armed but poorly trained SWAT teams. If the ATF is allowed to continue treating law-abiding gun owners and gun dealers like enemy combatants, it’s only a matter of time before more innocent American lives are lost. Keep in mind that no one at ATF has ever been held criminally responsible for the agency’s mass killings.
Good riddance
In a perfect world, ATF would be disbanded. It’s not as though they will be missed by the law enforcement community. As we have previously reported, most of ATF’s criminal charges are filed administratively after the fact, after another law enforcement agency has made an arrest. Of course, the ATF takes credit for the arrest, the investigation, and the subsequent prosecution. It is rare for the agency to initiate a major case on its own. When they do, innocent lives are usually lost.
The country’s Second Amendment community almost did David Chipman a favor when we blocked his nomination to lead the ATF. The little rodent of a man will be sipping boxed Chardonnay while ATF’s current director, Steve Dettelbach, undergoes congressional hearings, if we’re lucky, and criminal investigations, if justice prevails.
To be clear, ATF and the Biden-Harris administration are violating the civil rights of millions of Americans. They need to be held accountable by Congress and the courts. Of course, none of this will happen while Biden occupies the White House. But Americans have long memories, and ATF’s abuses are something we will never forget and certainly never forgive.
Once Biden shuffles off into history, change will come. The ATF has never focused on getting guns out of the hands of criminals, because they’re solely focused on persecuting the law abiding. Soon, the law abiding will be back in control, and ATF will be held accountable for four long years of strict obedience to the Biden-Harris administration’s illegal orders.
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