Democrats on Capitol Hill, with the strong support of anti-gun activists, are seeking to give federal gun regulators a much bigger budget next year.
A group of nearly 60 Democrats in the House penned a seven-page letter last week to Congressional Appropriations Committee leaders asking for $2 billion "or to the greatest amount executable" for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
Of note, the ATF's budget request for FY 2024 was $1,875 billion to cover salaries and expenses, a figure that was a 7.4 percent increase from the enacted FY 2023 budget.
The lawmakers stress the additional money could be used to hire nearly 250 additional Industry Operations Investigators, or IOIs, the personnel who typically inspect licensed federal firearms dealers for compliance, as well as gird the agency to fight "ghost guns" and "machine gun conversion devices," among other tasks.
"Such an increase would support the Agency’s critical work in preventing and responding to gun crime and ensuring the safe manufacture, importation, and sale of firearms," said the letter from the lawmakers. "The ATF’s work is critical to protecting Americans from the scourge of gun violence and the influx of unsafe guns into our communities."
The letter is spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, a Georgia Democrat who spent five years as an Everytown staffer before the group backed her run for office in 2018 with a seven-figure campaign. Overall, Everytown has dropped some $9 million into electing and re-electing her to Congress.
The funding increase for ATF is also formally endorsed by both Brady and Giffords.
Of note, Biden's administration has been "tough on guns" for the past four years, going as far as to start a taxpayer-funded White House-based office of gun control staffed by activists while directing the ATF to drop the hammer on licensed firearms dealers for often minor errors on paperwork. FFLs have been run out of business at an ever-increasing rate, with the agency shifting to a Biden-directed "zero tolerance" mantra.
As detailed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation earlier this year.
ATF revoked 157 federal firearms licenses in 2023, following an inspection. That’s up from 88 licenses revoked in 2022 and five in the last six months of 2021. Reports show that 165 FFLs were able to maintain their licenses following a revocation hearing in 2023. That was up from 83 in 2022 and just one in the last six months of 2021.
Banner image: SIG Sauer X-Carry 1911 with Romeo X red dot.
