More damage has been done to the Second Amendment by the Biden-Harris administration than by all other administrations put together. Biden and his unelected, backroom operatives have been deliberate in their multipronged assault on our constitutional protections.
A lot of work needs to be done to get the Second Amendment back in line with what the Framers intended if the next administration is one that genuinely respects the law and its citizens. It’s going to be a huge challenge. Using the legacy media and various anti-civil rights groups, some of which received taxpayer funding, the Biden-Harris administration has pounded law-abiding Americans with dozens of infringements.
What follows is a list of proposals about how to regain our civil rights. This is by no means an exhaustive list. It’s not as rigid as the Constitution and can be updated if needed. It consists of both short-term fixes and long-term ambitions that may need approval from Congress.
Joe Biden’s second candidate for ATF director, Steve Dettelbach, lied under testimony to the Senate confirmation committee, saying he wouldn’t campaign for additional laws or regulations. Dettelbach has recently advocated for a ban on “assault weapons,” a term he has refused to define, and standard-capacity magazines.
Because of Dettelbach, the ATF has become a weapon in the hands of unelected White House bureaucrats. The ATF has been notorious for human rights abuses during his leadership. His department doesn’t even care if lawmakers who are supposed to be monitoring it criticize it. Despite being a federal agency charged with upholding the law, ATF refuses to comply with requests made under the Freedom of Information Act.
Joe Biden created the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention two months ago to “reduce gun violence, which has ravaged communities across the country, and implement and expand upon key executive and legislative action which has been taken to save lives.”
Its stated goals include safe storage laws, background checks for everyone, and getting rid of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. It also wants to ban so-called “assault weapons” and standard-sized magazines.
The existence of a White House office whose main goal is to abrogate their constitutional rights offends millions of Americans.
The ATF’s function is rather minimal. The ability to track a gun used in a crime is a useful tool for law enforcement. In this supporting capacity, armed ATF personnel are not necessary. Evidence experts such as pathologists, lab technicians, and forensic examiners are not armed. Agents of the ATF are also not required to be armed.
As an example, 2,600 of the agency’s special agents who are not involved in conducting firearm traces would be eliminated. It would also do away with the agency’s SWAT teams, which have been accused of committing many real crimes and civil rights violations while traveling the country.
When allegations of wrongdoing at the CIA, NSA, FBI, and Internal Revenue Service surfaced in 1975, lawmakers established the Church Committee to look into the allegations. It uncovered extensive malfeasance and published its findings in six thick papers.
The American people are now just as worthy of being told the truth. Since even the most egregious transgressions by ATF regarding weapons or the Second Amendment are routinely ignored by the mainstream media, few people outside of the gun community are aware of them.
Dettelbach and the unnamed White House decision-makers wouldn’t be able to avoid a Senate select committee investigating these allegations. Good citizens in the United States have a right to know how their tax dollars were used to violate the rights of others.
The Civil Rights Act established the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in 1957. Its mission is to “uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all persons in the United States, particularly some of the most vulnerable members of our society.”
Although its primary mission is to combat discrimination, the Civil Rights Division also looks into and prosecutes cases of other possible federal law infractions. It has recently begun enforcing laws against sex abuse and sex trafficking. It would be simple for the Civil Rights Division to expand its purview to include violations of the Second Amendment.
The Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division looks into allegations of civil rights violations by state and local law enforcement and those who run correctional facilities and hospitals for the mentally ill.
This government agency has the resources to investigate ATF. In addition to the actual crimes perpetrated by overzealous agents, the agency must answer for the construction of an illegal gun registry and the violation of the civil rights of several federal firearm licensees.
It would be a tremendous tool, given that the Special Litigation Section has never lost a case.
Since Biden took office, the ATF’s rulemaking has been characterized by two constants: The courts are ruling that they violate the constitutional rights of millions of law-abiding citizens if they are not enforced. The ATF consistently loses cases in courts across the country. Too many of ATF’s illegal laws have already been defended with taxpayer money. It’s time for this legal masquerade to end. The ATF should be warned to stop trying.
Millions of taxpayer monies have gone to anti-civil rights groups like Giffords and Brady, especially since the pandemic. These organizations need to account for the money we gave them.
It was announced on July 11, 2022, that the White House will be issuing 21 executive orders to curb “gun violence.”
The zero-tolerance approach for gun dealers, the easing of restrictions on states passing unlawful “red-flag” legislation that allows for the seizure of firearms without due process, and the targeting of handmade firearms and pistol braces were all results of Biden’s instructions.
In March, the White House published yet another batch of executive orders that further restrict our freedoms. All of Vice President Joe Biden’s anti-civil rights executive orders must be nullified.
All revocations of Federal Firearm Licenses should be halted until an exhaustive inquiry of the hundreds of gun dealers who have been deprived of their livelihood for the most insignificant clerical errors is completed. The current plan must be suspended temporarily.
In his first few months in office, Vice President Biden declared war on “rogue” gun dealers. Biden and the ATF came up with a five-part definition of “rogue” dealers to help identify them.
- Refusal to allow an ATF inspection
- Transferring a firearm to a prohibited person
- Failing to conduct a background check
- Falsifying records
- Failing to respond to a trace request
Thankfully, very few vendors disregarded any of Biden’s five guidelines. In order to generate the revocations that the White House was demanding, ATF was compelled to tighten the screws. Therefore, the agency redefined “willful” and pledged to punish severely any future willful infractions. An FFL can be revoked from a gun dealer if the government determines that even a minor clerical error constitutes a willful violation.
The ATF has implemented a new method, which some believe demonstrates a quota system for FFL revocations. Agents now employ threats and intimidation to persuade Federal Firearm Licensees into “voluntarily” surrendering their license. The outcomes are just mind-blowing.
- There were 29 FFL revocations and “voluntary” surrenders during the last six months of 2021.
- There were 157 FFL revocations and “voluntary” surrenders during all of 2022.
- There were 292 FFL revocations and “voluntary” surrenders during the first six months of 2023.
- Based on the data and the increase in ATF enforcement actions, there will likely be more than 600 FFL revocations and “voluntary” surrenders by the end of 2023.
Every one of these nearly 800 FFL revocations and “voluntary” surrenders needs to be examined by personnel who are outside of ATF. They’ll likely discover that most of these gun dealers were victims. Their civil rights were violated. Someone needs to be held accountable for this.
Dettelbach and his entire leadership team need to answer for the crimes and civil rights violations committed by ATF personnel every single day. These suggestions are a starter for a much larger conversation.