By Darwin Nercesian The Truth About Guns
U.S. Representative Barry Moore from Alabama has joined Representative Eric Burlison of Missouri in co-sponsoring a bill that seeks to dismantle and shut down the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). In the past, I have been skeptical of this idea as eliminating the agency does not necessarily put an end to some of the amoral legislation it enforces, and moving these duties over to the FBI would be like complaining that your 3rd-grade teacher is unfair and replacing them with the Gestapo. However, Burlison and Moore have a different solution in mind, suggesting that the ATF’s authority revert to individual states.
While most supporters of the Second Amendment could care less about who has the authority to infringe on their rights and are more concerned with them not being violated in the first place, myself included, this opens up some options. As Americans, we have the right to choose which state we live in and which local economies we support. If we can’t vote candidates into office who will respect and defend the Constitution, we can always seek a better life in a state that does. That’s what I did. Let the criminals have their soft target states, and let those places become even less desirable. See how it works out for them. Yeah, I can get on board with this plan.
“I am proud to stand with my friend Eric Burlison as a co-sponsor of HR374, the ‘Abolish the ATF Act.’ The ATF has repeatedly violated Americans’ Second Amendment rights, and it’s time to put an end to this unconstitutional overreach,” said Moore in a post on his X account.
The ATF was established in 1972 to regulate and enforce federal laws concerning the manufacture, sale and possession of firearms, ammunition, explosives, alcohol and tobacco. However, many see them as having gone rogue, legislating via the implementation of “rules,” either on their own or being weaponized at the direction of a sitting administration, a practice that has seen the agency admonished for exceeding its statutory authority by the United States Supreme Court.
“The ATF is a disaster,” Burlison told Fox News Digital while expressing that the “disaster agency” has “been violating the…Second Amendment.”
“I think at the end of the day, this agency needs to be abolished, and we need to let the states police what happens to the states,” he added.
To nobody’s surprise, an ATF spokesperson responded to Burlison’s comments with a glowing review of the agency’s work.
“ATF provides enormous benefits to the American public through all of its efforts fighting violent crime every day,” said the ATF spokesperson to Fox News Digital.
This, however, is like praising the agency for stopping the purse-snatching of an elderly woman while ignoring that they blew up a senior living facility right afterward. I’m not averse to pointing out when the ATF does work in the best interest of Americans, and I do from time to time when they help FFLs secure their facilities from robberies and when they apprehend dangerous criminals, but that isn’t enough to absolve them from their unconstitutional sins. With the incoming Trump administration, a growing list of federal agencies may be on the chopping block, or at least up for some serious Department of Government Efficiency restructuring from the likes of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. It will be a great time to be alive if we actually get to see this happen, as running roughshod over Americans’ freedom with unmannerly impunity has overstayed its welcome, and it’s high time we see a peaceful and orderly refreshing of the tree of liberty.
Find the original article on The Truth About Guns.
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Do So Hooray
While the BATFE(IEIO) obviously has to go, who will take over its (few) legitimate duties? As demonstrably corrupt as they are, would you trust the FBI with their version of ‘oversight’? Or is the free exercise of the right to keep and bear arms, as clearly stated in Amendment II, yet another example of what government – on all levels – has no legal, moral, or ethical excuse to interfere with, let alone ‘regulate’?
I’m a strong supporter of 2A and don’t like some of the things done by the ATF. They have definitely overreached on things like banning parts (e.g. ghost guns, bump stocks, arm braces, etc.) and that has to stop.
Alcohol bootlegging and avoiding tobacco taxes is pretty much a legacy from the 1920’s and, while it probably still needs to be controlled (they are Federal taxes), It can probably be done better by the IRS – there’s 87,000 new ones of those and they’re armed. And making sure no one makes an atomic bomb in their basement or buys other restricted items like SAM missiles is probably a good job for them. But firearm laws were always intended to be controlled by the individual states. Where the ATF could be an advisory group, coordinating some semblance of a framework that keeps fairly uniform laws in the differing states, and they could propose federal laws that coordinate transporting and possession of firearms between states, this is properly the job of the FTC. So, I propose the elimination of the ATF and moving its responsibilities to agencies like the IRS, FTC and FBI. Then make the FBI subject to a combined Congressional oversight committee with complete transparency. If I were Musk or Ramaswamy, that’s what I would propose.
TOTALY DISSASEMBLE, this communistic RAGIME !!! Start over with what we learned was and still wrong with this group, FBI, and a few others !!!!!!!!!!!!! It is a dire time in our society. Refocus is long over do. !!!!!!!!!!!
I’M ALL FOR THE ATF’s CLOSURE!!! THEY’VE BEEN PERFORMING UNCONSTITUTIONAL OVERREACH FOR YEARS AGAINST OUR 2ND. AMENDMENT RIGHTS!!!
Transferring the powers of the ATF, or allowing them to “revert to the states’, both assume government at some level has the power at all. I submit that the 2nd amendment bans government at all levels from exercising the powers claimed by the ATF.
Note: I am not claiming that 14th amendment’s “Equal Protection Clause” extends the Bill of Rights to cover the states. I contend that the language of the 2nd amendment ALWAYS applied to all levels of government. The 2nd amendment states the right to keep and bear arms “shall not be infringed” with no qualifiers regarding who shall not infringe on the right.
The 1st amendment states “Congress shall make no law …”. If the very same Congress that drafted both amendments intended to restrict what level of government was limited by the 2nd amendment, they would have included similar language in the amendment.
IF this rogue agency spent a mere fraction of the time they use trying to come up with even more infringements via ‘regulations’ into actually enforcing the existing (mostly unconstitutional) ‘gun control’ laws, they might actually make a dent in the so called ‘gun violence epidemic’.
At this point disallowing them from creating unconstitutional ‘regulations’ would be a big step in reining in their over reaches.
I am Totally against Go fund me’s !! But there is always exception to the rules. In this case I will even commit to a monthly credit card charge !! Too FUND this GREAT an WORTHY CAUSE!!!!!!!!!
Final comment on ATF. Just like cancer there is cures. Aids is example !!! But all the cancer centers, doctors, special equipment ? No way are they going to say Great we are no longer needed!!! Get your heads out of your —–??? Same with the overwhelming amount of ATF JOBS!!!!!! There is nonlethal weapons out there !!! if we where aloud to own use ??? no need for ATF!!!!!!!!! This subject as well as many others. No need no JOBS!!!!! Instead of focusing for betterment of mankind, UNLESS SOME ONE CAN MAKE MONEY OFF IT NO WAY IN HELL can we have such nonsense !! MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND !! We the elect knows what best for YOU !!! Do as told not as we do. This is just how things work!!!! Silly multiplying rabbits, you only exist to serve the FOXES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where the comments ?????????????????????????????????????????????????
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