Gabby Giffords’ gun control group, Giffords, suggested Tuesday the Palisades fire and subsequent investigation into how it started ought to make Republican House Members back away from their push to defund and/or abolish the ATF.
Giffords did this in reaction to a photo posted by ABC7’s Chris Christi:
BREAKING: ATF arson investigators have descended on the area of suspicion, along a hiking trail at The Summit of the Pacific Palisades #PalisadesFire pic.twitter.com/9y6ktpbMSr
— Chris Cristi (@abc7chriscristi) January 13, 2025
In response to Christi’s photo, Giffords noted “As the ATF investigates the Palisades fire, which has killed at least eight people so far, House Republicans are doing everything in their power to defund and dismantle the ATF.”
The gun control group added, “The GOP must stop putting politics above public safety.”
Giffords did not mention how weaponized the ATF became during the Biden Administration, under the leadership of Steven Dettelbach. They did not mention the numerous gun controls the ATF enacted by going around Congress, via regulatory edicts.
Some of those gun controls included equating an 80 percent finished lower receiver with a firearm, thereby requiring a background check to purchase that receiver or other gun parts kits. Other ATF gun controls included a rule expanding background checks, something Congress has refused to do, and a rule re-classifying AR-pistols with stabilizer braces as short barreled rifles (SBRs). The SBR designation puts the pistols under the purview of the National Firearms Act, subjecting them to the same registration and tax requirements as machine guns.
Many of the ATF’s rules have been blocked or vacated by various courts, yet in some cases, the Biden ATF allegedly stuck with their rule anyway.
Rick Caruso’s Palisades Village Mall Intact as L.A. Burns Under Karen Bass
In separate cases, the pistol brace rule was either blocked or vacated at least three times between March 29, 2024, and early November, yet Gun Owners of America (GOA) noted a December 2024 letter from ATF HQ in which the agency declared, “Federal law requires a pistol with an attached stabilizer brace or stock be registered as a short barreled rifle.”
On January 14, 2025, GOA noted, “GOA called the ATF’s bluff, and they walked back their threat—albeit begrudgingly. This rogue agency has no respect for the rights of law-abiding Americans, and we will not rest until they have been completely abolished.”
Reps. Lauren Boebert (R) and Eric Burlison (R) are leading the charge to abolish the ATF.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
