By a vote of 9-6, the House Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee passed a new appropriations bill that includes ATF budget reductions and defunds various gun control items.
On Monday, July 13th, the House CJS subcommittee released its appropriations language, and to the surprise of many, included were numerous cuts to federal gun control items.
First, a pay-cut the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to the tune of $417.65 million, or 26% of it’s total budget.
This is the largest budget cut to the agency since its inception in 1972.
The next gun control item is to defund the 2022 ATF 80% receiver rule — a rule finalized by the ATF that sought to do away with 80% firearm receivers by requiring background checks on “privately made firearms.”
Sec. 544 of the bill deals with defunding a large portion of the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” (BSCA) that was passed under the Biden Administration.
The cuts aim to decrease money for:
- Federal campaigns on safe storage and “Red Flag” Gun Confiscation laws;
- Aligning the ATF’s definition of a “firearms dealer” with that of the BSCA’s “engaged in business” rule;
- Public “awareness campaigns to alert dealers of the broader provisions of the BSCA;
- And several other lesser provisions.
Sec. 548 of the bill would prevent the ATF from enforcing their defunct pistol brace rule, as well as ending their ability to defend the rule in court using taxpayer dollars.
Additionally, this section prohibits implementation of “Red Flag” laws, however it remains to be seen how this will be handled and what happens to the money already appropriated for disbursement via the BSCA.
Sec. 565 appears to stop agencies like the ATF from making up or creating any new gun control “rules.” This is extremely relevant because the Biden Administration was able to bypass the legislative branch by having the ATF essentially draft illegal internal “rules” that acted as federal law.
The next section of the bill states “none of the funds made available by this or any other Act may be used to create, operate, or maintain a Federal firearms registry.”
Federal law already prohibits the ATF from keeping such a registry, but the agency has recently been caught maintaining a 900+ million firearms transactions database.
Lastly, Sec. 595 defunds the ATF’s “zero tolerance” stance that the Biden Administration used to persecute mom-and-pop FFLs for minor paperwork violations.
The bill now heads to the full committee next — the National Association for Gun Rights maintains it’s position that defunding the ATF is a good first step, however they aim to completely abolish the ATF.
You can sign your “Abolish the ATF” petition by clicking this link.
