ATF agents
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Previous Post
Next Post

By Lee Williams

There are few documents in Washington more worthless than a presidential budget. Joe Biden’s budget, which was formally presented Monday, is no exception.

A presidential budget is really nothing but a wish list…a starting point for the complex task of funding the government. They’re more of a statement of priorities than an actual budget, and Biden’s priorities are very clear. He wants to increase funding for the ATF by more than 13%, so the embattled agency can hire more special agents to target Biden’s fictional “rogue gun dealer” boogeymen, whom the White House is trying to blame for skyrocketing crime rates in large cities historically controlled by Democrats.

“The Budget includes $17.4 billion, an increase of $1.7 billion above the 2021 enacted level, for DOJ law enforcement, including a total of $1.7 billion for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to expand multijurisdictional gun trafficking strike forces with additional personnel, increase regulation of the firearms industry, enhance ATF’s National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, and modernize the National Tracing Center,” Biden’s budget states.

To be clear, this is all part of Biden’s war on America’s gun dealers. If they’re allowed to hire hundreds of additional special agents, the ATF could take this war to the next level. No gun dealer would be safe from increased harassment, surprise audits and other mayhem, which the Biden-Harris administration clearly hopes will put them all out of business.

ATF headquarters washington, DC
Shutterstock

The main problem with any increase in funding for the ATF is the ATF itself. Historically, the agency has proven all to willing to be weaponized by the current occupants of the White House, especially if the current occupants are anti-gun, and there has never been a more anti-gun crew than the Biden-Harris administration.

This susceptibility to political pressure has led to massive failures, which have cost hundreds of lives: Ruby Ridge, Waco and Fast and Furious, just to name a few deadly debacles. The fact that the ATF isn’t pushing back against Biden’s crazy “rogue gun dealers” theory shows just how far the agency is willing to go for a presidential belly-scratch and pat on the head.

We all know the real reasons why violent crime is skyrocketing in large cities — gangs, defunded and demoralized police, and soft-on-crime prosecutors — and they don’t have anything to do with gun dealers of any kind, rogue or law-abiding.

In fact, the ATF continues to provide cover for Biden’s theory. As of today, they still haven’t responded to a pair of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, which would debunk Biden’s rogue gun dealer ruse once and for all.

Rather than increasing funding, I hope Congress will consider defunding the ATF. The agency has never been held accountable for the Americans killed during its botched, politically-motivated raids. It’s time to send the ATF a clear message that enough is enough. To do otherwise could be deadly, and cost even more American lives.

 

The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project wouldn’t be possible without you. Click here to make a tax deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.

This story is part of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and is published here with their permission.

Previous Post
Next Post

36 COMMENTS

    • Quote———-If there’s any LE agency that needs defunding it’s this one.———-Quote

      All police departments need defunding. Because Chauvin maybe, may or may not, have, maybe, squeezed the life out of Floyd, and he definitely did so with a lack of respect! All police departments nationwide need to be defunded. Oh – and F whitey. Everything is white people’s fault. How do I know this? Uh – more of a gut feeling, but yeah.

      Also, we NEED Universal background checks, I’m talking about government registries. Yes. I know. You can’t have a universal background check, period, unless we have a list of all you people, selling and trading guns to each other, otherwise it’s unenforceable. We need lists of you people. It’s very important we identify all the cisgendered heteronormative white male patriarch owning guns. The reason? Because these people are the problem in the america, and are a real issue. It is the “The MAGA question” of our time. These people are insurrectionists, and I am clutching my pearls so hard, my sack is going to explode if we don’t get some gun control passed immediately.

      And once the gun control is passed. I will feel better about everything. When the government controls me, tells me what to do, and regulates my activities and manages my life, I feel fulfilled as a democrat. We need to get rid of state’s rights, and rule the total of the US as an imperialistic leftist utopia. Safety will be supreme, we can get rid of individual rights, and freeeeeeeeedumb, and usher in a new world of happiness, progress, and good feelings, and a government taking care of us.

    • ATF is one of the true whores of the executive branch….willing to do anything to gain additional funding….and the last time I checked alcohol and tobacco were drugs..(DEA?)…so do we need an agency to just chase guns?…..

  1. Yup, instead of putting it on the border, he’s gonna give it to the people who are gonna try to take the things we NEED because of his border (non) policies! Predictable.

    • When people are quickly released on low bonds and the legal system fails to convict for whatever reason…

      If a person never gets convicted of the felony they commit, are they actually felons?

      How many politicians, entertainers, and other assorted celebrities never see the inside of a cell? Much less a court room? Not everyone gets the O.J. Simpson or Bill Cosby treatment. The is a great deal of fear that is pushed and it can be overwhelming for many. Those in power just want to make an example of a few to control the masses.

      • Let a person with a clean record, a person that works and has a family, make a simple mistake with a firearm and watch the full weight of the law crush them. The honest person is the enemy of this regime.

        The repeat offenders and the mentally unbalanced are the foot soldiers of this regime.

  2. About 145 million people in the US file income taxes (not all actually pay). Every time the government decides to spend 1.7 billion, it costs us individually about $12. A billion here and a billion there and you’re starting to be talking real money.

    5.8 trillion? I pay a crap ton more than average Americans, but I pay nothing compared to the “rich” who have the audacity to be motivated enough to make over 250,000 a year. The evil and wicked rich people, improving all our lives with innovation and creating jobs!

    But it’s ok, let’s just print the money. Our children and grandchildren can just pay it back as Chinese sl@ve$. Or we can trigger a global dark ages. It’s cool with me either way, I guess I’ll just eat turnips and groundhog stew. It does seem a little hypocritical everyone with their pet projects and causes and agencies for “the children”

  3. Billion. With a fu**ing B.
    Sure. Why not? If they steal (extort, i know) our money they might as well use it against us.

  4. Just curious, but when was the last time the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, last bust an illegal still or cigarette smuggling operation? Either disband the entire bureau or send them back to being nothing but tax collectors. As was their original function and charter. We could shut down at least half of the Federal Government and other than those collecting paychecks no one would notice.

  5. I agree that the increase in funding for the ATF will not stop more crime and will eliminate thousands of gun dealers.

    quote——————–We all know the real reasons why violent crime is skyrocketing in large cities — gangs, defunded and demoralized police, and soft-on-crime prosecutors — and they don’t have anything to do with gun dealers of any kind, rogue or law-abiding.————quote

    Falsehood. Defund the Police was to stop them from acquiring military hardware like tanks, flame throwers and remote control killer robots to be used on U.S. Citizens.

    Republicans have refused to fun Federal money for proper training of police, swift prosecution for rouge cops and more thorough vetting

    Republicans have destroyed the right to belong to a Union, or pass a livable wage law like European Countries have and failed to fund adequate job retraining which leads to underemployed people who often resort to crime or buying hot merchandise to pay their bills.

    Biden is correct when he said the Nation needs Universal Background Checks and Safe storage laws and he is going to push hard to get both. Let us hope for the sake of the Nation he succeeds.

    We need both laws because states that have lax gun laws funnel thousands of second hand guns into states with tough gun laws making those laws completely useless. Any criminal or nut case can get a used gun on the street and also build up a ghost gun with no serial number on it. When crime goes up its the law abiding gun owner who gets all the new gun ban laws thrown at him but the far right are to ignorant and paranoid to understand an elementary concept even a 5th grader would have no trouble comprehending.

    • dacian, the Dunderhead, Pure Unadulterated Horse Pucky! Defund the police had absolutely NOTHING to do with police getting tanks (I hope that was you, FAKE DACIAN). Police have never asked from them or anything like that. Police already have proper training. If you want to belong to a union, Republicans aren’t stopping you from joining. But your Lefties should not be allowed to FORCE us to join.
      We already have “Universal Background Checks” and they don’t work as criminals don’t do Universal Background Checks.
      The only think that need funneling is someone to put a brain in the real dacian’s head.

    • “We need both laws because states that have lax gun laws funnel thousands of second hand guns into states with tough gun laws making those laws completely useless. Any criminal or nut case can get a used gun on the street and also build up a ghost gun with no serial number on it”

      Well if those states have such damn good all encompassing “gun laws”, then how are the guns from other states allowed in? Because if they have real law enforcement, the smugglers would be getting caught….More Dem lies I’d say……….

  6. A huge step in the right direction. We have too many assault weapons and machine guns on our American streets and multiple mass shootings every day. Want to feel safe again when you send your kids to schools and when you go out to shopping malls? Get these guns off our streets. No one needs a weapon designed for mass murder to defend yourself with in your home. Get a shotgun like President Biden recommended. #MomsDemandAction #Everytown #AssaultWeaponBanof2022

    • Dear Mr Hogg….or as you’re more widely known, Mr. Puss Festered Boil On Society’s Ass.
      Have you reached out to the Ukranians for their slant on that??????
      Askin’ for a Ukraine friend.

    • to David Hogg

      Good point in regards to using a shotgun for home self defense. During the American jackbooted invasion of the Philippian Islands in 1899, during that 13 year slaughter of 3 million civilians U.S. Army records proved (researched by Jan Libourel Gun writer) that the most deadly shoulder arm was not the rifle or pistol but the shotgun.

      I might add that the majority of U.S. gun owners are on your side. Surveys show its the NRA prostituting the Republican Party with payola is the only thing holding up Universal Background Checks and Safe Storage Laws.

      • Thanks Dacian. Your support means a lot to me. Also, I just got my first pubes! For a long time, people were listening to me talk about gun control, even though I was a kid with no pubes. I was amazed so many valued my opinion, even though I had no life experiences, and just repeated what my leftist parents taught me. So it really means a lot to me, and thanks for being on my side. We need to de-gun America by any means necessary, and usher in a new era of peace, love, tolerance, and democrat ideals.

  7. BACK GROUND CHECKS , PAY YA TAXES , BEEN THOUGH ALL THIS BEFORE , STILL LAW-BIDING , I CAN BUY A PISTOL ETC , FILL OUT THA FORM , ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE.
    BE GLAD YA ALL NOT IN NORTH KOREA .

  8. Take that sniveling bullshit elsewhere. Fact: no one is ‘safe’ anywhere at any time. ‘Feeling safe’ is a self delusion only created by the fallible mind possessed by someone who just happens to have been lucky enough not to be under, or have been targeted by a direct attack.

    Fact #2: Assault weapon’s are a fictional term, whereas Assault Rifles & Machine Gun’s are the same damned thing moron.

    Fact #3: Oh shotguns eh? Both you fcks would love mine, it has 25 round capacity, but I typically run 12 to 15 round magazines. You’d be hard pressed to distinguish it from a machine gun, because it can clear a 10 plate rack sub .5 sec.

    Fact #4: IF your crony dipshits would handle business properly with dangerous psychopaths instead of ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away without taking so much as a single preventative step that matters, those extreme low occurrence events would not happen in the first place. But when they do moron, exactly who takes care of the issue? Hint: Good guys with “assault weapons” & shotguns.

    Which is only one of the solid reasons among many why We The People need those weapons. Another good example is the ongoing situation in the UA, common people defending themselves against a foreign invader slaughtering innocents. Ever heard of home invasions? There’s a third. I can keep going…

    Well panty wetter, we’re simply waiting on you candy asses to act on those hashtag lines. FAAFO, and when I’m done with those you send, I’m coming for who sent war to my doorstep. And then those who supported sending them. And there are tens of millions like me.

  9. Swing lo’ sweet tyranny, comin’ thru yo’ front door…..
    Libturds mantra….guns for me, none for thee.
    “Tyranny is what is acceptable for the government, but not for We The Little Peeps.” Thomas Jefferson (paraphrased)
    Gonna take a shitload of door kickers following ole Butto O’Dork through the gun confiscation door comin’ for to take yo’ braced shorty, solvent trap, FRT, bumpy, and lump of aluminum PFG. Seein’ where this is gonin’????
    Forrest Gump meme ……
    “The Redcoats came to confiscate our guns and powder……We shot them.”
    Avoid the rush, set up your fields of fire early.

  10. Let’s see… inflation is spiraling out of control, gas is around $4.00 at the pump which really represents a over 150% increase in price over a six month period, costs of items are going up due to transport having to pay more for fuel…., and Biden thinks the already over funded ATF needs another few billion $$$ to carry out his personal unconstitutional agenda.

  11. This is the yet another way that the socialist progressive marxist democrat communists plan to run most local gun shops and gunsmiths totally out of business, thereby making buying a firearm by law abiding citizens that much harder and impossible for many.
    LOL Just think…if Antifa had concentrated on the BATFE instead of and like they did ICE, LEOs HP, Sheriffs,the Conservatives and committing arson, rape , murder and true racism…… we’ might be better off now. ROFL.
    Further proofing Antifa are the real facists…along witth the BATFE and the DNC.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here