It doesn’t matter who President Trump names to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the (now formerly government-funded) gun control lobby will oppose them. As if newly-confirmed Director Kash Patel doesn’t have his hands full already at the Federal Bureau of Investigation after being sworn in on Friday, administration sources say Donald Trump plans to now name him acting director ATF.
Folks in flyover country may be able to hear the wails and tearing of clothing all the way from DC at this news. Gun control activists, lobbyists, and other were already traumatized by the firing of ATF chief counsel Pamela Hicks. Patel in charge of the federal firearms regulator could well touch off a complete meltdown.
“The counter mandate that we have is the force of the Founding Fathers in the 2nd Amendment.”
“That is more powerful than any regulation these entities can come up with. But if you let ATF continue to chip away, they will completely take it away FOREVER.”
– @Kash_Patel
https://t.co/TijQnt0qqQ pic.twitter.com/eOENpAmrR6
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) February 23, 2025
Patel has plenty of experience with government over-reach and political prosecutions. He found himself targeted by jack-booted thugs from government agencies under the Biden regime, so he knows all about weaponized government and the hope is he will reform the ATF, stop the persecution of gun owners and manufacturers and refocus prosecuting actual criminals.
The @ATFHQ must be laser focused on stopping violent crime by going after the “trigger pullers” This is what the Special Agents want to do! Stop attacking the firearm industry and law abiding gun owners exercising their #2A rights @FBIDirectorKash @NSSF https://t.co/21Qr8AZXqT
— Larry Keane (@lkeane) February 23, 2025
Just hours after being sworn in as the new FBI Director, sources say Kash Patel has been appointed as the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). This move comes as part of a broader reshuffling within federal law enforcement, with Patel expected to bring his strong background in counterterrorism and national security to his new role. With the ATF’s growing focus on combatting violent crime and illegal firearms trafficking, Patel’s leadership is anticipated to be pivotal in shaping the agency’s future direction.
According to several sources, President Donald Trump is expected to name Patel as the acting director of the ATF. He would replace Marvin Richardson, the agency’s current acting director.
On Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi dismissed the ATF general counsel, Pamela Hicks. She had served as chief counsel since 2021 under the Biden administration and as deputy chief counsel for ATF during Trump’s first administration. Bondi accused the current leadership at the ATF of targeting law-abiding gun owners.
Targeting law-abiding gun owners? They haven’t just targeted them. They’ve killed them.
All of that will hopefully come to a sudden and abrupt halt under Patel’s leadership. The days of anti-gun political hacks running the ATF as an agency that targets “bitter clingers” and “deplorables” for political reasons is now in the past. Forever, we hope.
“Targeting law-abiding gun owners? They haven’t just targeted them. They’ve killed them.
All of that will hopefully come to a sudden and abrupt halt under Patel’s leadership. The days of anti-gun political hacks running the ATF as an agency that targets “bitter clingers” and “deplorables” for political reasons is now in the past. Forever, we hope.”
Amen. Preach it!
I can hear the anti-gunners heads exploding. OK, not literally (even though I would hope it would have that effect) but they are exploding emotionally at least, and reciting the same old tired lies they have been using these last four years.
That ATF general counsel, Pamela Hicks, that got fired and escorted out of the building – she (yes, Dettlebach was involved too) was behind the, essentially, ‘murder’ of Bryan Malinowski, she was behind the armed-force terrorizing of hundreds of innocent law-abiding Americans including children who they held at gun point threatening to kill them. Brady and Giffords and all the other anti-gun groups in their lies claims this ‘murder and terror ATF’ activity is ‘needed’ claiming how unsafe we will be now, because their own little private army of murder and terror is not going to be doing that any more and their participation in the Biden tax payer funds money laundering scheme has been cut off.
Trust, but verify.
I’m cautiously optimistic. Waiting to see what actually happens from here forward before lending opinions.
We already have E.O.s laying out their priorities. Bondi has already prioritized going after “traditional” criminality instead of harassing gun owners and FFLs trying to navigate the constantly changing and reinterpreted rules.
Here’s the thing Haz: the culture has shifted. Recall Trump’s first term when the idea of using the military to defend U.S. soil made people furious. I’m not seeing much opposition now. It’s a different world. We had to have Trump’s first term, and we had to have the senile puppet’s term so the people, who aren’t too far gone, could notice the contrast. You can only ignore reality for so long.
Three attempts over 24 hours. All three of my comments are removed. What the heck, Dan? TTAG rules apply here again?
I’m going to try a different moniker to see if you’ve blacklisted mine again for yet another unknown and undeclared reason. I must be one of the most vanilla and benign visitors to your site(s). Frustrating.
Ahh…so it’s not my email address this time that you’ve blacklisted, but my moniker. That’s a first.
Well, so SNW is now no better than the previous site, I guess.
What name were you posting under? We haven’t removed any mosts since we started SNW (aside from obvious spam).
I wish the same thing could be said about TTAG because my comments haven’t been posted for over a month now. I’ve tried multiple times to contact them through Email and Facebook and continue to be ignored so obviously I was blacklisted from that site. I hope SNW does hold a higher standard when it comes to free speech because not all sites do. Thank you for providing relevant topics and information to those of us in the firearms community that want a voice in the discussion.
My original ‘I Haz A Question’ username I’ve used for years. This site is now blocking it. I know it’s the name itself because I attempted to use a different email address (which proved successful the last time SNW banned my username). When I finally used a different name (IHAQ), my comments were posted immediately.
What chaps my hide is that I’ve always been one of the most “vanilla” commenters here, and at your previous site. Nothing every inflammatory, yet often modded and sometimes blocked outright. Makes absolutely no sense, and frustrating that we don’t even know what the playbook is.
When my email address was blocked, it was the same result both here and at your previous site. Now it’s only here…I’m not experiencing any blocks there.
Dude, I respectfully disagree.
Practically every right-leaning video or article about the Hyena had comments describing her as “unelectable”, and I agree. Did an unelectable buffoon losing signal a political realignment, or was it just that plenty of voters (who are still leftists) were unmotivated to vote for an unelectable buffoon? If Dan Quayle lost by only 2M votes, would you say “the culture has shifted”, or would you just kick the RNC for running Dan Quayle?
Practically every video or article about Trump has commenters who impulsively voted for him because he was shot or because some Dem lie pist them off. In some cases the betrayals were flipflops on lefty positions, or denial of a handout they felt entitled to. Are they born-again MAGA constitutionalists, or just immature emoters who would vote for anyone for similarly superficial reasons?
PS Dan, every comment I post is held for moderation too.
I’m not gauging the culture shift by the election. I’m gauging it, in part, by the reaction to the post-election governance. It feels very different compared to 2017, and poll numbers reflect this. Major TDS in 2017 led to peak wokeness by 2020. It was beginning to fade by 2022. By 2024, woke (modern Dem politics) was a joke. It’s like people were able to break free from a mind virus. Regarding the election, I think inflation and border control flipped most people. Plus, people began to realize how good we had it in 2019. And now we’re finding out that USAID made it seem like there was more support for left wing policies by funding activist groups worldwide.
I think there’s zero appetite to go back to the previous uniparty status quo. That doesn’t mean Democrats can’t win. It means people will finally demand more from Republicans. That’s why I’m much more confident in the 2.0 Administration.
As much as Trump was lied about in the media, he still would have probably won in 2020 (it’s the economy stupid) if it weren’t for Covid and the
government-sponsored color revolutionSummer of BLM. IMO anyway.You make some excellent points. I agree that inflation / the economy was a big part of everything, but I also believe the fickle sheep are fickle. Last fall the best gas price I found was $2.77; this week I couldn’t find better than $3.23. I’m not blaming Trump at all, but I doubt the people who demanded improvements have the patience or understanding of how long progress will take.
I don’t share your optimism on “woke”. The polls I see (which, being highlighted by our side, are clearly not the most pessimistic) show feeble support (50s or low 60s) for issues that were uncontroversial / essentially unanimous through much of my life. There are at least three “generations” whose lifelong entertainment and mass media experience has been nothing but woke.
True.
Sorry Larry, the ATF is a tax collection agency and a rogue one at that. They are no more “law enforcement” than the TSA. We don’t need to “work with them”, as an extra-constitutional agency that has a continuous history of abuse, not to mention murdering innocent American citizens, they need to be disbanded and the killers in the ranks prosecuted.