MSNBC Columnist Calls to ‘Double the Size and Budget’ of ATF in Response to Donald Trump Assassination Attempt

MSNBC columnist Frank Figliuzzi reacted to the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump by calling for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) “size and budget” to be doubled.

Figliuzzi noted that the September 15, 2024, assassination attempt against Trump was the second in two months and pointed out that “the Secret Service internal report on its own lapses, which led to eight shots fired at Trump by a young sniper on July 13, was scathing.”

He described the Secret Service’s “task” as daunting, then criticized open carry, writing, “That task, to guard the lives of their protectees in outdoor settings, including in the 31 states that allow citizens to walk around displaying a gun, in a nation with 20 million assault-style rifles, defies logic. Something must change.”

A couple of corrections are in line here:

1. Open carry is the law of the land in 46 states, not 31.
2. There are more than 28 million AR and AK-style rifles in circulation, which is far more than 20 million.

After writing about the second assassination attempt and the Secret Service’s daunting task, Figliuzzi suggested some solutions, the chief of which was to increase the size of the ATF.

He wrote, “…[D]ouble the size and budget of the federal agency responsible for enforcing existing gun laws.”

The ATF has issued a flurry of gun control regulations during the past six years, many of which have been blocked, vacated, or struck down in court. One example of this came on June 14, 2024, when the Supreme Court struck down the ATF’s bump stock ban.

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AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly: awrhawkins@breitbart.com.