As Trump Heads to White House Rep. Burlison Pushes Plan to Abolish ATF

With President-elect Donald Trump heading to the White House and Congress under Republican control, Rep. Eric Burlison (R) is pushing ahead with plans to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, commonly known as the ATF.

FOX News quoted Burlison describing the ATF as “a disaster.”

He said, “For several decades they’ve been a disaster agency [which has] been violating the Second Amendment.”

Burlison wants a scenario in which states handle their gun law enforcement without federal agencies breathing down their necks.

He re-posted an X post from Ted Nugent on Friday:

The ATF issued numerous rules during the Biden/Harris administration, one of which criminalized owners of legally purchased AR-pistol stabilizer braces. Another one of the ATF’s rules declared that 80 percent complete firearm frames are firearms and therefore can only be acquired via background checks.

The ATF also issued a rule instituting, for all intents and purposes, universal background checks.

Lawsuits filed by Gun Owners of America, the Firearms Policy Coalition, and the Second Amendment Foundation, have rendered many of these and other ATF rules unenforceable or otherwise moot. Legal action on some of the rules continues and Rep. Burlison wants an America in which the lawsuits would not be necessary because the ATF would not exist.

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.