In recent years, congressional Republicans have had an unnerving habit of wanting to defund government agencies that bother them to one degree or another. Several GOP members, for example, wanted to defund the FBI. Others tried to defund the Internal Revenue Service.
There were related Republican calls to defund the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and a couple of years ago one conservative congressman even suggested defunding the Food and Drug Administration.
And then, of course, there’s the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — better known as ATF — which Republicans in the last Congress targeted with similar rhetoric. In the new Congress, however, several GOP members don’t just want to strip the ATF of resources, they also want to eliminate the agency altogether. The conservative Washington Times reported:
A pair of Republican lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Reps. Eric Burlison of Missouri and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, members of the Second Amendment Caucus, introduced the Abolish the ATF Act ‘to safeguard Americans’ Second Amendment rights and protect law-abiding gun owners from the relentless bureaucratic overreach of the ATF.’
In addition to Burlison and Boebert, the bill has seven other Republican co-sponsors: Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mike Collins of Georgia, Robert Onder of Missouri, Andrew Ogles of Tennessee, Mary Miller of Illinois, Keith Self of Texas and Paul Gosar of Arizona.
Boebert said in a written statement that she believes the ATF “should be abolished before they eventually abolish our Second Amendment.” (To date, the ATF has never tried to abolish the Second Amendment or any other law — because that’s not a thing it can do.)
To be sure, there’s no reason to believe this legislation will gain traction anytime soon. Eliminating entire federal agencies is incredibly difficult, and even if House GOP leaders were to take an interest in the Abolish the ATF Act, it would be subject to a Senate Democratic filibuster that Republicans would not realistically be able to break.
But the fact that several House GOP members would even introduce such a bill is a reminder about some Republicans’ approach to gun policy. For years, much of the right stuck to a familiar refrain: There is no need for new gun laws, they said, officials simply need to enforce the gun laws already on the books.
We’re occasionally reminded, however, that for many in the party, that sentiment no longer applies: Too many Republicans not only oppose new gun laws, they also want to abolish the agency responsible for helping enforce existing gun laws. As for the current state of the ATF, incumbent Director Steven Dettelbach — one of only two people ever to be confirmed by the Senate to lead the department — is stepping down next week ahead of Donald Trump’s second term. It’s unclear who the incoming Republican president might nominate to succeed Dettelbach, and there’s no guarantee that his choice would be confirmed: In Trump’s first term, his choice to lead the ATF was rejected by a Senate led by a GOP majority. In fact, practically every Republican senator for a decade and a half has opposed every nominee to lead the agency, regardless of merit. Dettelbach told CBS News this week that he’s concerned about the GOP-led Congress cutting the ATF’s budget, adding that if Republicans succeeded in eliminating the ATF, “people would be killed.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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