It is hardly a journalistic stretch to note that the Biden administration weaponized the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) against gun owners and gun stores. Former President Joe Biden’s (D) war on the law abiding went so far that he put a gun-control activist, Steven Dettelbach, in charge of the agency. Dettelbach’s ATF proved this to be true by attempting to usurp Congress’ constitutional prerogatives by reinterpreting existing laws and effectively creating new gun-control authorities. (Dettelbach was so obviously a gun-control activist in ATF clothes that, when he resigned right before President Donald Trump (R) again took the oath of office, the gun-control group Giffords put out a statement calling Dettelbach “courageous” for, you guessed it, weaponizing the ATF against law-abiding gun owners.)
President Trump quickly corrected the course of the ATF by giving his newly confirmed director of the FBI, Kash Patel, the added responsibility of being the acting director of the ATF. Patel then began refocusing the ATF on its actual mission statement, which ends with: “… to protect the public from crime and violence, and to uphold the Constitution.”
In response, the gun-control publication The Trace (funded by Michael Bloomberg) ran a story in which former ATF official Mark Jones called the appointment of Patel “demoralizing” before saying, “This guy doesn’t like the ATF and doesn’t believe in firearms regulation. I just see him coming in with a wrecking ball.”
Pro-freedom advocates should hope so, as the ATF, under Biden, tried to put as many gun stores out of business as it could by pulling licenses for harmless paperwork errors. At the same time, the ATF reinterpreted regulations to turn law-abiding gun owners who owned previously legal products into potential criminals.
Before ascending to his two current positions, Patel had criticized the ATF for its unconstitutional behavior under Biden; in fact, before the November 2024 election, Patel publicly argued that the ATF was moving to “wipe out” our Second Amendment rights.
Patel’s appointment also came just days after Attorney General Pam Bondi fired the ATF’s general counsel, a person who oversaw many of the legal attacks the ATF perpetrated on law-abiding gun owners and federal firearm licensees.
Also, last February, President Trump ordered a Justice Department review of all gun-related policies the Biden administration enacted. Given that the ATF is part of the U.S. Justice Department, Patel’s leadership could facilitate that process.
Now, it should be noted that Patel’s appointment as acting director of the ATF is temporary, as this appointment was not confirmed by Congress. President Trump will still need to nominate a permanent director of the ATF. As Patel gets to know various ATF personnel, he might even recommend someone else for the position so he can focus on the FBI.
Patel, meanwhile, chose Dan Bongino, a former New York City police officer, Secret Service agent and radio host, to be deputy director of the FBI.
Now, if one can can call Dettelbach a gun-control advocate, and he surely is that, then, just as clearly, Bongino can be called a gun-rights advocate, as Bongino has a long and vociferous record of defending law-abiding citizens’ right to keep and bear arms.
Trump announced this appointment on Truth Social, calling Bongino “a man of incredible love and passion for our Country” who now will be central to restoring “Fairness, Justice, Law and Order” at the FBI.
On many occasions, Bongino has talked about the need to reform the FBI. He has often argued that the FBI needs to return to solely fighting crime, and that it must stop abusing its power by stepping into politics. Indeed, before he took this position, when addressing criticism of Trump’s new direction for the FBI, Bongino said on his radio show that “Kash Patel is there for one reason—he is there to make the FBI great again.”
As this was going to print in March, FBI Director Patel had signaled major reforms, including relocating thousands of the FBI’s employees out of Washington, D.C., so they can refocus on catching bank robbers, murderers, terrorists and so on, rather than pursuing political investigations.
