What Kind of Impact Could DOGE Have on ATF?

We’ve talked a bit about what can and should happen with the ATF going forward. The NRA-ILA had thoughts and The Gun Mag’s Dave Workman did too.

These takes are quite different, but can actually come together in many ways to create a cohesive approach to reforming the ATF and gun rights in the United States.

But then we have the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has taken a chainsaw to the federal government and cut away waste, fraud, and abuse in a manner we have never seen before.

And man, is it beautiful.

But DOGE is just getting started. It hasn’t started looking at the ATF, which could mean some interesting things.

First, they could advise President Trump to sign an executive action stating that the ATF cannot attempt to rewrite gun-control law. The U.S. Constitution empowers Congress with writing the law. The courts then are supposed to keep the executive, legislative and all of the government’s agencies within the bounds of the law—beginning with the constraints stipulated by the Constitution. Doing this would prevent the ATF from wasting its time and resources on things it does not have the authority to do.

All this first requirement would actually do is compel the ATF to follow its congressionally chartered mission. The ATF became a separate component within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) pursuant to Title XI of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. According to the DOJ: “The mission of the ATF is to conduct investigations utilizing their unique expertise, partnerships, and intelligence to enhance public safety by enforcing the laws and regulations and uphold the Constitution of the United States of America.”

Next, in such an executive action, DOGE could advise the president to restrict the ATF to treat the lawfully armed public like the law-abiding citizens they are. The Biden administration treated lawfully armed citizens—people who wish to own guns and perhaps to carry concealed for self-defense purposes—as if they are a problem in society. This potentially turns the public against law enforcement, which is extremely counterproductive and thereby wastes government resources.

Most of the other suggestions are basically a rehash of what we’ve seen others suggest, though the mechanisms might vary. Ending “zero tolerance” and such are very much things that need to go and I’m not overly picky as to which tool removes it once and for all, just so long as it vanishes without a trace.

But these two are no-brainers that should be put in place right away.

I’m sick of seeing the ATF decide what is and isn’t legal based on the personal desires of government employees and not the text of the law. The bump stock ban was just one example. Pistol braces are another. That’s not even getting into binary triggers which were fine until suddenly they weren’t, just like bump stocks and pistol braces.

So telling them to stop making up the laws themselves and stick to what Congress has passed and the president at the time signed into law is an easy, basic step.

The same is true of putting an end to this idea that we’re the bad guys simply because we have guns. No one should get a knock on the door from an armed ATF agent who wants to see the gun you lawfully purchased absent some probable cause that you’ve done something illegal. Buying guns, even a lot of guns over a short period of time, isn’t illegal and it’s not grounds for someone to be interrogated by federal agents.

Stop treating lawful gun owners as the enemy.

It’ll be a nice change of pace.