Rep. Matt Gaetz Introduces ‘Abolish the ATF Act’

U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida on Wednesday introduced legislation to eliminate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms (ATF) with the “Abolish the ATF Act” of 2023, according to a press release.

The bill, if passed, would immediately dissolve the agency upon its enactment.

Congressman Gaetz has previously spoken out against perceived overreach by the ATF.

In 2020, he sent letters to Attorney General William Barr and Acting ATF Director Regina Lombardo, asking the agency to “cease taking any actions and reconsider or rescind any secret determinations which call into question the legality of firearms owned by millions of law-abiding Americans.”

Both letters went unanswered, according to the release.

Recently, the ATF announced a new policy that could subject gun owners to a felony charge for not registering firearms with stabilizing braces like short-barreled rifles, an action that Gaetz specifically cited in his June 2020 letter.

“House Republicans have the ATF in our crosshairs,” Congressman Gaetz said in the release. “The continued existence of the ATF is increasingly unwarranted based on their repeated actions to convert law-abiding citizens into felons. They must be stopped. My bill today would abolish the ATF once and for all.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the ATF’s ruling enhances public safety, but Gaetz said it unfairly punishes disabled gun owners and veterans who rely on stabilizing braces to be able to fire with one hand, Fox News reported.

“I have a lot of disabled veterans in my district who enjoy pistol shooting and rely on stabilizing braces to be able to engage in the activity,” Rep. Gaetz said in a phone interview Wednesday morning with Fox News Digital. “The recent actions from the ATF essentially allow them to make case-by-case determinations on whether a pistol with a stabilizing brace is legal or an unlawful, sawed-off shotgun.”

“The continued existence of the ATF is increasingly unwarranted based on the actions they’re taking to convert otherwise law-abiding people into felons,” he said.

“My bill would abolish the ATF. If that doesn’t work, we’re going to try defunding the ATF. If that doesn’t work, we’re going to target the individual bureaucrats at the top of the ATF who have exceeded their authority in rulemaking. And if that doesn’t work, we’re going to take a meat cleaver to the statutes that the ATF believes broadly authorize their actions.”

The Florida congressman went on to argue that ATF officials making such rules “fundamentally don’t understand firearms.”

“I think they are under the flawed conception that a stabilizing brace increases the lethality or danger of a pistol,” he added. “It seems the ATF is on a snipe hunt for regulatory action that virtue signals to the anti-gun left, but that has no real practical safety impact on Americans.”

You can read the bill here:

LATEST VIDEO