The proposal to merge the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives with the Drug Enforcement Agency has been almost universally panned by both Second Amendment organizations and gun control, groups, as well as the firearms industry. Attorney General Pam Bondi, though, gave her full support to the idea on Monday during an appearance before a House Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations subcommittee hearing.
While gun control groups worry that the move would hollow out the ATF, Second Amendment organizations like Gun Owners of America are concerned that the opposite would happen; a supercharged federal agency that would treat the firearms industry and gun owners with suspicion.
Bondi told lawmakers that “guns and drugs go together” and the merger would be a “great marriage between those two agencies.”
“They’re working hand-in-hand on task forces already. Now, they will be working under one umbrella, and it’s going to be great for our country,” Bondi said.
That comment is a prime example of why 2A groups are so alarmed by the proposal. Guns and drugs do not go together, in either recreational and regulatory functions. Lumping “guns and drugs” together makes guns seem taboo and shady, instead of the constitutionally protected items that are lawfully possessed and used by tens of millions of Americans that they are.
“Bureaucracy has been around for a very long time, and just because things have been done one way for decades and decades doesn’t mean that is the most efficient way to do them in the future,” she said.
The House and Senate have not released their fiscal 2026 spending bills that includes DOJ funding, although the House is expected to do so in early July.
The proposed language was part of a broader budget proposal from the Trump administration that would cut salaries and expenses funding for key law enforcement agencies and make overhaul changes to the department.
It’s not efficiency that has groups like the National Shooting Sports Foundation so worried about the effects of a merger. As NSSF senior vice president and general counsel Lawrence Keane recently told Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co, the DEA doesn’t have a great working relationship with the drug companies and pharmacies that they police. After living through the Biden administration’s weaponization of the ATF, the gun industry was looking forward to resetting its relationship with the agency, and have had mostly high praise for Acting ATF Director Dan Driscoll and Deputy ATF Director Robert Cekada over the previous months as the pair have sought to treat gun makers and sellers as partners, not adversaries, in the fight against illegal gun trafficking and violent crime.
Bondi said the department is reorganizing the ATF. “We will not be having ATF agents go to the doors of gun owners in the middle of the night, asking them about their guns — period. They will be out on the streets with [the] DEA,” Bondi said.
I’m all in favor of not having ATF agents show up at the homes of gun owners, either in the dark of night or broad daylight, but it’s possible to curb those abuses without creating a superagency that could be used to target us the next time a hostile administration is in power.
“We would rather deal with an ATF that we understand and have a working relationship with on the regulatory side to achieve compliance than to deal with a behemoth that has no culture of regulating the industry or working with the industry,” said Lawrence Keane, senior vice president for government and public affairs and general counsel at the NSSF.
“We don’t think it’s in the best interest of gun owners,” he said.
The Firearms Policy Coalition said in a statement it “strongly opposes any plan to merge the ATF with any other federal law enforcement agency.”
Luis Valdes, national spokesman for the Gun Owners of America, said merging the AFT with another agency would increase the available budget while providing reduced oversight and accountability.
In its current form, he said, the ATF is under a microscope.
“Everything they do is watched, and it’s far easier to control their budget and make sure that they don’t grow in scope, budget and manpower to violate [Amercans’] Second Amendment rights,” Valdes said.
I don’t think the DOJ has any nefarious intent with the proposed merger, but even good intentions can result in bad policies and practices. I hope that Bondi, other DOJ officials, and House and Senate members will listen to the chorus of voices in the 2A community who are urging them to drop this idea and stick with reforming the agency instead of creating a monster that could easily be used to attack the firearms industry and gun owners alike.
Read the full article here
