Various reports indicate that Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll has been chosen to take the lead at ATF in place of current acting director Kash Patel.
Driscoll’s role will be that of acting ATF director, CBS News noted.
USA Today pointed to unnamed DOJ sources, noting, “Driscoll will continue to serve as Army Secretary while he also oversees the ATF, an arm of the U.S. Justice Department.”
The Associated Press indicated, “It was not immediately clear why Patel was replaced” nor was the time of the replacement altogether clear, as the AP indicated one source suggested Patel was actually removed before the removal was announced to “senior ATF leaders.”
Thirty-eight-year-old Driscoll “had served as an adviser to Vice President JD Vance, whom he met when both were attending Yale Law School.”
The ATF has been under intense scrutiny since President Trump assumed office in January, as it went around Congress to issue regulatory gun control upon regulatory gun control during the Biden era.
Thank you, Kash Patel, for torching ATF’s "Zero Tolerance" policy on your way out. 👏
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) April 9, 2025
The gun control crowd doesn’t know what hit them—and this administration is just getting started. Let’s keep restoring the Second Amendment, one battle at a time. pic.twitter.com/KPiyVTU95u
One of the Biden-era ATF controls was the zero tolerance policy toward licensed firearms dealers. That policy was repealed on Monday, and other ATF policies are being examined now.
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:
