Harriet Alexander writes at DailyMail.com about the Biden administration’s latest assault on gun rights.
Gun dealers have lost their licenses this year at an unprecedented rate, with critics accusing Joe Biden of undermining the Second Amendment by stealth.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has revoked the licenses of 122 gun dealers in the fiscal year that began in October.
The previous fiscal year the figure was 90, and in 2021 it was only 27.
Since records of revocations began in 2013, the ATF never revoked more than 81 dealers’ licenses, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Critics of the ATF’s newly-found muscle argue that it attacks largely lawful gun dealers who often provide valuable assistance to law enforcement when trying to track firearms used in crimes.
Some law enforcement veterans told the paper that the previous system of issuing warnings rather than revoking licenses was preferable.
‘The gun dealers were our first line of defense against gun trafficking,’ said Peter Forcelli, a retired deputy assistant director.
‘Why are we now beating an ally into submission?’
But Steve Dettelbach, appointed director of the ATF in July 2022, defended his bureau’s policy.
‘We’ve taken steps to hold accountable those few dealers who are engaging in these willful violations,’ he said.
‘They’re not going to have the privilege of being a gun dealer anymore.’
Dettelbach, who served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio before taking the ATF role, said dealers needed to be held to strict standards because guns could end up getting sold to criminals.
Rick Vasquez, a retired ATF official, told the paper he approved of Dettelbach’s approach.
‘The ATF, previous to this administration, had a ‘Let’s see if we can help you’ attitude and some gun dealers took advantage of that,’ he said.
Yet those who have lost their licenses told the paper they are being unfairly targeted.
