Trump’s Reported Shortlist for ATF Features Familiar Names

In the weeks since Donald Trump’s election we’ve heard essentially nothing from the incoming president or his transition team about his gun policy plans for his second term in office, but a story from the New York Times over the weekend may have shed a little light on his thinking. 

While much of the Times‘ story focuses on current ATF Director Steve Dettelbach and Democrats’ consternation over his imminent departure, reporter Glenn Thrush also named some names under consideration as Dettelbach’s replacement. 

As it turns out, a couple of the folks on the list should be very familiar to Bearing Arms’ readers and listeners/viewers of the Cam & Co podcast. 

Transition officials have told gun rights groups that they do not expect Mr. Trump to pick an A.T.F. director before next spring, but caution that he is just as likely to tap somebody on impulse, at any moment, without consulting his transition team.

Those said to be under consideration are: Blake Masters, a far-right conservative in Arizona who is close to the financier Peter Thiel and who mounted a failed bid for a House seat; Peter J. Forcelli, a former bureau official who wrote a book on the “Fast and Furious” scandal; Larry Keane, the head of the gun manufacturers’ trade association; and several current and former top A.T.F. officials, including Robert Cekada, Daniel Board and Rick Dressler.

Forcelli didn’t just write a book on Operation Fast & Furious. He was one of the whistleblowers who called attention to the gunwalking scandal, and suffered retaliation from higher-ups in Obama’s Justice Department for his actions. 

Forcelli’s also been a regular guest on Cam & Co since the release of his book The Deadly Path: How Operation Fast & Furious and Bad Lawyers Armed Mexican Cartels earlier this year, and I consider him to be a friend, so I’m thrilled that he’s being considered for the top slot at BATFE. 

Forcelli is the antithesis of David Chipman, the former ATF agent who was working for the gun control group Giffords when he was tapped by Joe Biden to head up the agency (Chipman’s nomination ultimately tanked, leading to Dettelbach becoming Biden’s second choice). Forcelli doesn’t see the firearms industry or lawful gun owners as an enemy of the ATF, and he’s been vocally opposed to the ATF rules on unfinished frames and receivers, pistol stabilizing braces, and those “engaged in the business” of dealing firearms that have been implemented under Biden’s watch. 

The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Larry Keane has also been a regular guest on Cam & Co over the years, and despite Keane’s love of the New York Yankees I consider him a friend as well. With decades of experience in dealing with the agency from an industry perspective, Keane would be a fascinating (if polarizing) choice to head up the ATF, and like Forcelli and Masters would definitely be an agent of change if selected. 

Of all the candidates named by Thrush, Keane would probably face the most opposition from Democrats and the gun control lobby because he too is the exact opposite of a committed gun control activist like Chipman. Keane’s first-hand dealings with the ATF over the past few decades gives him a unique insight into the many reforms that are desperately needed at the agency, and it would be interesting (to say the least) to have someone from the firearms industry heading up the agency in charge of enforcing federal gun policy.  

I confess that I don’t know much about the other ATF veterans cited as potential replacements for Dettelbach, though I’ve heard from sources that Cekada is also a pro-2A guy. Board retired from the ATF earlier this year and is currently a director of government strategy and operations at the consulting firm SAIC, as well as running his family’s small Christmas tree farm in southwest Virginia. 

Dressler is another former ATF official who last served as a supervisory special agent and program manager at ATF headquarters. In 2019 he was named vice president of federal operations at Armor Express, which makes and distributes of body armor systems. 

If Thrush’s reporting is accurate, we might not know who Trump will pick for a few more months, but based on some of the names on his short list, gun owners and Second Amendment advocates are likely going to be pleased with whoever he lands on as Dettelbach’s replacement.