Calls for the abolition of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are coming from everywhere in the pro-2A community. What ex-President Biden did with the agency over the past four years provides plenty of justification. “King Joe” defied the courts, ignored the requirements and limitations of his authority, perverted the same Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of which he claimed to be so proud, and violated federal law in the last gasp of his multi-decade, anti-gun jihad.
However, simply abolishing the agency won’t solve the problem; it would simply kick it somewhere else. While some people say all gun laws are unconstitutional, the fact remains some of them are well within the limits on federal authority and a lot of others haven’t yet been conclusively ruled out by the Supreme Court. It would be very easy to devote an entire term of the court, from October to July, with just the major cases and cleanup some of the ambiguous language in cases like Heller, McDonald, and Bruen.
Fixing the ATF is going to require some big changes but the real change has to begin at the top, with a new director. Sounds easy enough, but there’s a catch: The Directorship of the ATF is one of the senior federal positions that must be filled by a federal employee.
In the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), there is a very long list of what are known as Senior Executive Service (SES) positions which are “career-reserved” including the ATF Director. When one of these SES positions is open, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) requires the President, or whoever is doing the recruiting, to give preference to federal employees and discourages outside searches.
What this means is people like Brandon Herrera, a popular candidate among those who are pro-2A, never had a real chance. The same would be true of anyone from the gun industry or any of the pro-gun groups, such as Eric Pratt of Gun Owners of America or Larry Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
But an outsider is desperately needed: the agency needs fresh viewpoints and experience outside of the Beltway. It also needs a leader who will not simply be a lapdog to either side; somebody with more insight, backbone, and the kind of knowledge about firearms that comes from experience.
How do we get such a person? It’s actually easier than one would expect. The OPM is an Executive Branch agency. A single Executive Order from President Trump changing 5 CFR 214.402 can remove the ATF Director’s post and any assistant director post from the career-reserved category.
The President’s ultimate choice might not be Brandon Herrera, but it can’t fail to be better than what we’ve had.
