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.
So the ATF claims that pistol braces are just a way to skirt the law on SBRs. Maybe. Our claim should be that technology has made the entire concept of the SBR anachronistic. Why were SBRs outlawed? Because they retained much of the power and accuracy of a rifle but were nearly as concealable as a pistol. 70 years later the .500 S&W magnum has as much as 3,000 ft. lbs. muzzle energy, twice what you can get from an AR in 5.56 NATO. Modern optics have made handguns more accurate in most hands than a shortened 1934 rifle with… Read more »
Yep.
Stupefying ignorance on so many levels of perception of consciousness, education, cognitive dissonance, Dunbar’s number etc.
When a corporate fascist government fears the people there is liberty to follow. I’d say we are there & in process.
Since the Aus. PM resigned yesterday more should be forthcoming. Of course Rothschild owns Reuters & AP & other MSM (directly or indirectly via his coterie of cohorts) & will spin it however he can get-a-way with.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australian-state-corruption-watchdog-says-is-investigating-nsw-premier-2021-10-01/
Some Real Warriors Outside Dr. Hillary Jones House
https://www.bitchute.com/video/gAC1XRMFFgt4/
Public Hangings/Executions would be a good thing & the sooner the better imo.
More evidence of the over reaching bloated tyrannical government the founding fathers warned us about becomes self evident.
@PS No, no, no. If what you wrote were true, then the Act of 1871 could not be repealed … but that act was repealed. Here is the truth about the Act of 1871: The Act of 1871 — A Correct Analysis by Team Law By Anna Von Reitz With all the hub-bub about The Act of 1871 circulating in the patriot community, I felt it was time to re-publish (for about the tenth time) the actual breakdown of what happened to The Act of 1871 after its initial repeal in 1874 —– and to publish again the correct analysis… Read more »
we the people may have to dissolve the atf , government wont do it we will have to!
I can’t believe they waited so long!! There is such a shortage of
secret policefederal enforcement authority I completely understand thIs…