AG Bondi Fires ATF General Counsel

When Pam Bondi was tapped to serve as Attorney General, many of us had some concerns. As Florida attorney general, she vehemently defended post-Parkland gun control, for example. We had reason to be concerned.

And, to be fair, those reasons haven’t evaporated. I, for one, am still less than thrilled with her in that role.

But one of her first moves regarding the ATF sure looks promising.

She’s cleaning house by removing a key part of Biden’s anti-gun machine.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday fired Pamela Hicks, the general counsel for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

“Earlier today, I was served official notice from the Attorney General of the United States that I was being removed from my position as the Chief Counsel of ATF and my employment with the Department of Justice terminated,” Hicks said in a statement on social media confirming the news.

“I have had the privilege of serving in the federal civil service for almost 28 years, including 23 as an attorney for the Department of Justice,” Hicks continued. “Serving as ATF Chief Counsel has been the highest honor of my career and working with the people at ATF and throughout the Department has been a pleasure.”

Among the many people pleased by the development was the Gun Owners of America.

🚨BREAKING🚨

ATF’s Chief Counsel Pamela Hicks has been fired and escorted out of the Washington, D.C. headquarters.

Hicks oversaw the enforcement of every Biden infringement of the Second Amendment since taking the position in 2021. pic.twitter.com/Cvg8HN2gvP

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) February 20, 2025

Hicks was apparently an integral part of the gun control works within the Biden administration. It doesn’t appear that she stepped up to argue the constitutionality of anything, which one would imagine is part of the job when you work for an agency that exists in part to regulate a constitutionally protected right.

Now, I’m not sure just how involved Hicks was in the day-to-day anti-gun effort within the Biden administration, but it does look like she’s not someone we can trust to preserve our rights, that’s for sure.

Her firing comes shortly after the FBI’s general counsel was also shown the door.

This is a good start. It’s not where it should end, though. There are a lot of personnel, particularly among senior leadership at the ATF, that need to be shown the door. I get that they worked for the executive branch so at least some of that has to be put on the White House occupants at the time, but there’s also been no indication of any resistance to anything Biden wanted to do.

And we’ve heard plenty about how resistant the bureaucracy is to everything Trump decides, possibly including which pair of socks to put on in the morning, so while media bias might be part of that lack of information, it’s pretty likely that there just wasn’t any.

So Hicks’s departure is a good first step. It should be far from the last one.

If Bondi keeps this up, I’m going to feel a whole lot better about where the ATF is going.