ATF-U

Yesterday, Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) began circulating a bill around the House of Representatives that could ultimately abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Pretty bold move.

What spurred the development of this bill was an unauthorized and unilateral decision by the ATF to establish a new standard for certain guns that, if not adhered to, made potentially millions of American citizens felons by the middle of May 2023.

Read that again. A government agency, without authority to do so, established a standard that criminalized citizens based on their opinion. There was no vote. There was no process. They just decided and published it. They made a decision that has serious LEGAL implications for American citizens. They established a law when they are not a lawmaking body.

Whether you support the 2nd Amendment or not, that should scare you.

The two most argued and controversial issues in America today are guns and abortion. No doubt in my mind. What if the Department of Health and Human Services arbitrarily determined that abortion was a danger to society and they determined that doctors were no longer authorized to perform those procedures under any circumstances. Not Congress. Not the Supreme Court. What if HHS did it without any authority? And anyone who got an abortion, or any doctor who performed one, was immediately a felon.

That’s not how our system works. Not how it is designed. The ATF overstepped its authority. Let me give you another example. The Justice Department under President Trump made a similar determination about guns in 2018. They “reevaluated” their authority and the authority of the President of the United States to establish a new regulation concerning certain attachments for firearms. They banned them. You know what happened? The legal process moved the way it is designed and the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals determined (in a 13-3 decision, nonetheless) that the PRESIDENT and the JUSTICE DEPARTMENT did NOT have the authority to make that determination.

Why? Because they are not law making bodies. We have a system to establish Federal Law, and they didn’t follow it. That is what is happening right now with the latest determination by the ATF and Representative Matt Gaetz is spearheading the effort to put them in check.

ATF needs to get back in their box. They are overstepping their authority and if they don’t get back in line and follow our process, they need to go. Like defunded. And if that doesn’t work, abolished. That’s what the bill says.

I have to say, I don’t disagree with him. There have been too many government agencies making decisions, LEGAL decisions, they don’t have the authority to make. It needs to STOP. We have a process…follow it.

As much as people will want to make this about guns, it isn’t. It is about our process, our Constitution, and our legal rights as Americans.

So, today, I say ATF…FU.