MARTINSBURG, WV –-(Ammoland.com)-AmmoLand News has learned from a leaked Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) video conference meeting that the agency is looking to double its size over the next five years.
Acting ATF Director Marvin Richardson started the conference call by discussing the number of comments received from the two previous comment periods. According to Richardson, almost 300,000 comments were submitted to the Federal Registry for unfinished frames and receivers during the comment period. Also, Americans submitted just over 250,000 comments on pistol stabilizing devices during that comment period.
President Joe Biden and his administration have targeted pistol stabilizing braces and unfinished frames since he came into office. Earlier this year, Biden took executive action on the firearms market. He ordered the ATF to change the rules surrounding braces and frames by using Chevron deference. The ATF submitted proposed regulations for public comment on frames and receivers four weeks later. Shortly after, the ATF published propose rules for public comment on pistol stabilizing devices.
Anti-gun states and groups have long been trying to outlaw unfinished frames. The Biden administration has pushed the narrative that unfinished frames and receivers are a tool only used by criminals. Biden calls these kits “ghost guns” and wants the ATF to regulate them as firearms. The ATF has also carried out several high-profile visits to makers of unfinished frames, including Polymer80. Stamps.com and Authorize.net also turned over Polymer80’s customer information to the ATF.
The ATF has also been targeting pistol-stabilizing braces. Shortly after the presidential election, AmmoLand News uncovered a meeting between the ATF and the Biden transition team. During these meetings, the Biden transition team asked then ATF Acting Director Regina Lombardo and Acting Assistant Director Richardson what their top priorities were for the new administration. Other than unfinished frames, the other item on its list have pistol stabilizing braces. The ATF, specifically Richardson, saw these items as a workaround to the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) and believed that pistols equipped with most stabilizing braces should be considered short-barrel rifles (SBR).
The ATF is creating two teams to deal with the massive number of public comments. Enforcement Programs and Services (EPS) Division Director Alphonso Hughes and Deputy Assistant Director Andy Graham will run these two teams. Each man will run a team to sort through the submitted comments. Richardson did not give a timeline for the teams to review all the submitted comments.
Richardson also talked about the ATF’s plan to double in size over the next five years under President Biden’s administration. The ATF plans to expand to around 2500 special agents, up from 1700 gun-carrying agents. This amount would put the number of agents at a higher level than the IRS, with 2000 special agents.
An expansion of the ATF concerns those in the gun world.
Gun rights advocates see the ATF as an out-of-control agency. Richardson didn’t expand on how the agency plans to pay for all the proposed new ATF employees, but it is known that Biden wants to see the ATF’s power greatly expanded.
No specific plans for the agency expansion were given to the agency’s employees in attendance. Besides the five-year time frame, Richardson didn’t give a rate of growth that the agency is expecting.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Two teams to deal with all the comments? This is just a ploy to hire more incompetent morons to harass and intimidate the public. Once hired, they will never be fired, even if they murder innocent women and children, a la Waco. If the truth be told, the BATF will do like they always do, along with all the other Federal agencies, when dealing with public comments and just ignore them altogether and proceed with whatever unconstitutional activity they are proposing.
Rogue Federal Agents thrive in a world of rogue federal agencies. DEA, IRS, ATF are all rogue and exist in a universe outside of law and common decency. We will not get our Republic back until these alphabet assaults on liberty are buried under the ash heap of history. And please don’t tell me about your nice golfing buddy who happens to work for one of these agencies. History tells us that regimes like Hitler’s National Socialist regime were populated by people with very good table manners and cocktail party small talk. Evil is banal in nature. Evil people are… Read more »
Marvin Richardson is a slimeball. And one ugly SOB.
If the ATF would focus on parolees and felons in the 5% of counties that account for 80% of the violent crime, they could actually impact the rise in violent crime, because that is where it is all happening. Instead, they focus on a range of weapons that account for fewer murders than bare fists. Their obsession with black rifles and silencers and triggers that make the rifle go boom faster results in lots of arrests and convictions and imprisonments, but no impact on the violent crime rate. My experience with ATF is, frankly, that they have an inferiority complex,… Read more »
The ATF is an illegitimate agency in direct violation of the 2nd amendment. Its sole purpose is to infringe on citizens’ right to keep and bear arms, and as such it must be abolished.
Not to worry. Biden wont make it another 3 years. And Trump will be back to wack every act by the Communist Biden regime. And I suspect Trump got bit by his demand for extrajudicial gun grabs and wont do it again.
And if the Communists succeed in taking America down, I will eat my words, and keep my rifle close.