The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has been a polarizing agency. Under the Trump administration, change has come, and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is celebrating it.
The ATF announced a “new era of reform” recently. These policy changes came with the agency stating that they are “not the same ATF of the last four years” and that they are working to “fundamentally changing course with a renewed focus on rebuilding trust with federal firearms licensees (FFLs), gun owners, and the public by prioritizing public safety and collaboration.”
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb praised this new era at the Bureau in a statement.
“We are delighted at what looks like a full reversal of ATF policies initiated under the Biden administration,” said Gottlieb. “Under Biden, gun owners and the firearms industry were treated like enemies of the state. The policy shift promises to rebuild trust with licensed dealers, gun owners and the public at large, which were essentially tossed aside by the extremely anti-Second Amendment Biden administration.”
From a list put out by the Bureau, the following are some changes they’re making:
- Ending the Enhanced Regulatory Enforcement Policy that had targeted firearms dealers.
- Publishing a new Administrative Action Policy that emphasizes firearm traceability and public safety and deemphasizes immaterial paperwork errors.
- Encouraging any federal firearms licensees that had their licenses revoked or surrendered under the Enhanced Regulatory Enforcement Policy to reapply. Those applications will be judged under the new Administrative Action Policy.
- Removing revoked FFL inspection reports from ATF’s public website.
- Instituting a NICS alert policy that restricts use of NICS alerts to federal firearms trafficking violations.
- Establishing a Senior Industry Partnership Advisor/Liaison within the Office of the Director to address industry concerns and foster productive engagement.
- Establishing a classifications board and requiring all new firearm classifications to be reviewed and approved by the Office of the Director prior to publication.
- Ensuring that all rules fairly implement congressional statutes rather than create entirely new laws by administrative order.
- Improving response time from the Firearms & Ammunition Technology Division (FATD) to FFL inquiries.
- Reversing a ban on the importation of non-lethal training ammunition.
“Our initial impression is ‘Wow,'” Gottlieb said. “Clearly, with this announcement, the ATF appears determined to shed its reputation for heavy-handedness as it emerges from the Biden administration’s cloud of anti-gun Rights demagoguery. Our hope is that the agency seriously follows through on these much-needed reforms and stops treating gun owners, casual collectors and gun show enthusiasts like criminals. We also hope the agency can weed out those individuals who seemed far too eager to carry out the draconian policies enacted under the previous administration.
“We are also encouraged by ATF’s a creation of a ‘Senior Industry Partnership Advisor/Liaison’ whose task will be to work with the firearms industry and address its various concerns,” he added. “Quite simply, this is a policy shift from night to day and a clear rejection of the anti-gun policies initiated by Joe Biden and his handlers which amounted to a four-year civil war between a weaponized government and the Second Amendment community.”
Hopefully under this current administration, enough institutional change will occur to help stave off future weaponization. Without Congress passing laws to limit or more finely define the Bureau’s role, we can only be hopeful that reformative changes will transverse from administration to administration.
