Donald Trump has never liked unnecessary regulations, regulations for the sake of regulations, and ATF is now up
DOGE enters ATF with mandate to slash gun regulations
The U.S. DOGE Service has sent staff to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the goal of revising or eliminating dozens of rules and gun restrictions by July 4, according to multiple people with knowledge of the efforts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been made public.
The initial target was to change 47 regulations, an apparent reference to Donald Trump’s status as the 47th president of the United States, two of the people said. But ATF and DOGE staffers are now poised to exceed that goal, with upward of 50 changes planned.
The revisions are part of a seismic shift unfolding at ATF as the Trump administration proposes slashing the law enforcement agency’s budget and dramatically reducing the number of inspectors who ensure that gun sellers are in compliance with federal laws. Some Republicans in Congress have called for abolishing the agency altogether, and Attorney General Pam Bondi has said she wants to merge ATF with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
If the plans are enacted, it would be a major win for pro-gun advocacy groups, who have long claimed ATF is an agency with too many gun regulations that tramples on Second Amendment rights. Gun-control advocates fear that the changes afoot at ATF will more easily allow potentially dangerous people to obtain weapons with little recourse.
“As Attorney General Bondi has made clear, ATF is working hard to reduce regulatory red tape that burdens lawful gun owners and to ensure agents are doing real police work hunting down criminals and gang members — not knocking on the doors of lawful gun owners in the middle of the night,” said Chad Gil Martin, a spokesman for the Justice Department, which oversees ATF.
What regulations get slashed? I guess we’ll see. The Washington Post tried a bit of fear mongering, but, really, ATF was created in 1972. We didn’t need it before that. Let states inspect gun stores and stuff.
Following the uncovering of a massive bribery scandal at USAID, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is ordering a full audit of all government contracting officers who have exercised grant-awarding authority under the agency’s business development program over the last 15 years.
In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said the scale of the USAID fraud is a “damning reflection of systemic failures in oversight and accountability.” She further said that the fraud “was not an isolated incident.”
In response, Loeffler instructed Associate Administrator Tre Pennie, who oversees government contracts awarded by SBA, to “act decisively” to crack down on any potential similar abuses in the agency.
Loeffler instructed Pennie to immediately initiate a full-scale audit of the agency’s awarding officers back to 2010.
A lot of people, both USAID employees and those who received money from USAID, better lawyer up. The auditors are most likely going to find lots of fraud and graft. People putting lots of money in their pockets, as well as shifting the money where it was not meant to go.
