By: Anthony Morelli
The walls are closing in at the ATF.
They are under serious pressure like never before.
And they just received a congressional demand in a dramatic new situation.
Conservatives see this as perhaps their best opportunity yet to dramatically change the ATF and take away the agency’s seemingly unrestricted power to enforce gun control on Americans.
Even though guns have never been one of the top issues for Trump, he is changing so many things in the federal government that for many people in Congress, it’s now or never at the ATF.
That’s why one Republican congressman is taking this opportunity to make a demand of the ATF that would have been totally unrealistic if Joe Biden were still the president.
And this could be just the start of a whole avalanche of changes at the ATF, now that a new regime is in charge that has a very different approach to gun control than the Biden administration did.
The wild card in all of this, of course, is Donald Trump himself, who is very unpredictable and could make sudden and surprising moves at the ATF that no one sees coming.
According to The Truth About Guns, “Concerned that lawful gun purchasers could unintentionally misrepresent themselves, thereby committing a felony, due to the wording on the firearms transaction record form, the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Federal Law Enforcement is calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to make changes to the 4473.
“Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana, recently wrote a letter to Daniel Driscoll, ATF acting director, asking the agency to clarify a question to ensure individuals who can certify in other legal situations that they are not a convicted felon but have not had their firearm ownership rights formally restored from inadvertently committing perjury.”
The letter is to Driscoll, but Higgins is surely hoping that Trump reads it as well, as it could convince him to take serious action at the ATF.
It would certainly be in keeping with the approach Trump has taken to governance in his second term, as he has not been afraid to make major changes.
Here’s part of what Higgins wrote: “The Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits individuals who have been convicted of certain crimes from legally purchasing a firearm. For this reason, when individuals purchase a firearm, they are required to complete ATF Form 4473, which includes a question about their criminal background. The Gun Control Act of 1968 also includes restorative procedures for individuals whose ‘record and reputation are such that the applicant will not be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety’ and wish to again exercise their Second Amendment rights.”
Higgins knows that his audience is not just Driscoll, the new head of the ATF, but potentially the President of the United States himself, Donald Trump.
ATF agents who are committed to gun control may not be happy to read this, but it seems that things could be on the verge of changing at that agency.