BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is cheering the announced departure of Steven Dettelbach as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and is urging incoming President Donald Trump to appoint someone who will “run the agency, not politicize it.”
Dettelbach submitted his letter of resignation Dec. 20, and it becomes effective Jan. 18, just two days before Trump is sworn in as the 47th U.S. President.
“That’s one less person Trump will have to fire after he takes office,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb observed, “and it is one less gun prohibition lobbyist on the government payroll.”
Since playing a key role in helping Trump win the November election, American gun owners and Second Amendment advocates have been urging him to make replacing Dettelbach a priority. Grassroots activists want an ATF chief who adheres to the Second Amendment, and who “can tell the difference between the good guys and genuine bad guys.
“We’re delighted to learn Dettelbach will be gone and that President Trump will be able to place someone in authority at ATF who can turn that agency around,” Gottlieb stated. “The country needs someone at the ATF helm who will lead the agency, not weaponize it; someone who not only can define what an ‘assault weapon’ is, but also understands what it is not.
“We are hopeful the next ATF director will straighten the record by telling Congress, the media and the gun prohibition lobby that modern semiautomatic rifles are not ‘weapons of war,’ and that there is not, and never was, a ‘gun show loophole,’” he added. “The next ATF director should know how to disassemble a pistol instead of trying to regulate it out of existence. He should lobby Congress for funds to revive restoration-of-rights procedures, and stop harassment of lawful, small business firearms retailers. He should be someone willing to visit a gun show rather than shut it down.
“For four years,” Gottlieb said, “the Biden-Harris administration has waged war on gun owners and the Second Amendment, with Dettelbach leading an ATF that helped make it happen. The next ATF director must be someone who recognizes law-abiding gun owners as allies, not enemies in the fight against crime, which is a battle we all want to win.”