By: Anthony Morelli
The ATF has had free rein to impose gun control for far too long.
But now Donald Trump is facing a choice about the ATF.
And the results of his decision will change America for years to come.
Many people on the right, including Trump’s own Vice President J.D. Vance, have proposed abolishing the ATF completely.
But at the very least, people want to see huge changes to this agency which for many years has run roughshod over the Second Amendment and harmed a number of people.
This came to a head once again at the tail end of the Biden administration with the shooting death of Bryan Malinowski in Arkansas.
Now a U.S. senator is trying to codify some real changes to how the ATF operates, and if this becomes law it would change the ATF permanently.
Donald Trump is going to have to decide whether to get behind this legislation, or to simply allow it to die quietly.
And furthermore, he is going to have to decide whether to make real changes to the ATF, or even eliminate it, regardless of whether this bill passes.
According to The Truth About Guns, “A group of eight Republican U.S. Senators on Thursday introduced a new measure meant to improve the fairness, speed and transparency of background checks and application processes for National Firearms Act (NFA) items.
“Led by U.S. Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the group introduced the ATF Transparency Act, which, if passed, would ensure law-abiding gun owners experience a fair and speedy application process when exercising their Second Amendment rights.”
It is unfortunate that the ATF has made it necessary to do this, but they have broken the trust of the American people too many times.
Over and over again, they have been too eager to crack down on guns and in the process have done harm to American citizens.
The article continues, “One of the current issues is that no formal appeal process currently exists for individuals who fail the ATF’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), regardless of whether the denial was based on mistaken identity, misinterpreted criminal records or records that were ultimately resolved.
“In a nutshell, the act would codify the appeals process to protect law-abiding Americans’ background checks from being wrongfully denied, require the ATF to process applications within three days and require the Government Accountability Office and DOJ to report on the number of NFA items involved in unresolved background checks, recommend ways to reduce unresolved checks and report on the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System involvement. If the ATF fails to process applications within three days, the applications would be automatically approved.”
Democrats are surely going to push back against this bill, and it will likely have a hard time getting past the 60-vote threshold for the filibuster in the U.S. Senate.
But Donald Trump could also take action to change the ATF, which is part of the executive branch, and it will be fascinating to watch and see if he does that or not.