Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) announced this week that he plans to introduce legislation that would abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
“In January, I will be filing the bill that Matt Gaetz sponsored to abolish the ATF. Why? Because we’re fighting for you,” Burlison said in a video posted on X.
The Missouri Republican co-sponsored Gaetz’s “Abolish the ATF Act” last year, which sought to eliminate the federal agency over concerns that its rulemaking related to firearms amounts to “big government overreach.”
Burlison, 48, argues that the 52-year-old agency has trampled on Americans’ right to bear arms.
“The ATF has been a disaster for the American people and our God-given Second Amendment rights,” he wrote on X. “It should absolutely be abolished.”
The ATF, which falls under the umbrella of the Justice Department, regulates firearms and explosives and has the authority to enforce federal criminal laws and create new rules related to guns.
The agency faced criticism from gun-rights advocates last year when it attempted to use the National Firearms Act of 1934 – the first federal law to impose limitations on gun ownership – to implement a rule banning pistol braces.
The ATF’s pistol brace ban was eventually overturned by a federal court in Texas.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, the House Freedom Caucus member suggested that states should be responsible for enforcing gun laws and not the ATF, which he referred to as a “disaster agency.”
“There’s very few ATF officials,” Burlison said, charging that the agency is “co-opting or commandeering [local] law enforcement to enforce laws” that state legislatures did not approve.
In response to Burlison’s criticisms, an ATF spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the agency “provides enormous benefits to the American public through all of its efforts fighting violent crime every day.”