President Joe Biden’s ATF director, Steven Dettelbach, tendered his resignation on December 20, 2024 with an effective date of January 18, 2025 — two days before Donald Trump is inaugurated.
The Firearms Policy Coalition reacted to Dettelbach’s resignation with a post to X, which said, “ICYMI [in case you missed it]: ATF Director Steve Dettelbach has tendered his resignation, effective Jan 18th. It’s a great start to 2025.”
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) also cheered Dettelbach’s pending departure, with its chairman Alan Gottlieb saying, “That’s one less person Trump will have to fire after he takes office, and it is one less gun prohibition lobbyist on the government payroll.”
CCRKBA urged President-elect Trump to appoint an ATF director who will “run the agency, not politicize it.”
Dettelbach has overseen an ATF that many have viewed as weaponized under the Biden administration. The agency has gone around Congress to unilaterally enact gun controls that include universal-style background checks and new regulations on partially completed firearms.
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.