Dettelbach’s Parting Shots

Steven Dettelbach’s resignation as director of the ATF didn’t exactly shock anyone who’s been paying attention since the November elections. It’s likely he wanted to keep the job, but chose to resign before he could be unceremoniously fired by the incoming Trump administration. To them, Dettelbach represents a politically correct bureaucrat who had little desire to push back against the use of “lawfare,” especially when it came to enforcing the Biden administration’s zero tolerance policy against FFL holders.

I don’t know the director. He may be a fine guy, but he’s never been accused of being even-handed when it came to dealing with the industry the ATF is charged with overseeing. In fact, he’s been a perfect match for the outgoing occupant of the Oval Office. Neither have been a bit reluctant to make their feelings known about guns, gun owners, or gun dealers.

Now there’s an unanswered question: who’s his likely replacement? There are some names being bandied around, including one being endorsed by several companies in the industry, but I’ve been told the ATF slot isn’t a front-burner issue for an administration still filling cabinet slots. In fact, I’ve been told point-blank that proclaiming anyone “the front runner” now for the ATF job would be premature.

Regardless, Washington and the industry are already abuzz with interest and proffered candidates. One group of industry “names” having gone so far as to have authored a letter endorsing their choice to replace Dettelbach.

For most, the ATF is one of those agencies that operates behind the scenes. Unfortunately, for the agency, it frequently manages to push itself center stage. And usually for a reason they’d rather have avoided.

The unusually direct actions taken against gun dealers for violations that were, for the most part, errors in paperwork come to mind first. But you don’t need to go back far to find what I call “rubber ruler rulings” like the on-again/off-again pistol brace classification and attempts to re-classify both 80% firearm receivers and parts kits as “firearms”. Their record in defending those ill-formed interpretations looks strangely like the “0-fers” in sporting events.

With the Supreme Court’s 2024 Chevron Decision, the heady bureaucratic days of interpreting deliberately vague laws from Congress may be waning, especially in light of the Department of Governmental Efficiency being championed by President-elect Trump and headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

That’s not to say Chevron will eliminate every example of bureaucratic overreach or that DOGE will eliminate inefficiencies. Both, whatever their end results, will likely lead to delays in legislation. Asking Congress to actually say what a law will do and how that work will be done would be a sea change.

The inevitable entrenched bureaucratic challenges to DOGE will likely lead to courtroom drama, redrawing of nebulous regulations, and slower implementation processes. And the selection of the director of any federal agency is subject to confirmation hearings and a ton of backstage politicking.

Director Dettelbach’s farewell to the industry came this week in the form of the ATF’s Volume IV of the National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment: Protecting America from Trafficked Firearms: NFCTA Updates, New Analysis and Policy Recommendations. The title pretty much foreshadows the report’s contents.

The Director’s Foreword lays out items Dettelbach says demonstrates the major threats to the citizenry. Number one on his list? Privately made firearms (PMFs).

From 2017 and 2023, the report reads, the number of PMFs “reported to have recovered in crimes increased almost 1,600 percent.” “Nearly 1,700,” it continues, “were associated with homicide-related offenses and more than 4,000 associated with violent crimes.” Interestingly enough, the report also points out a growing incidence of former police guns being used in crimes. The solution to that one, Dettelbach suggests, would be a reexamination of the idea of disposal of LE guns rather than releasing them back into circulation.

That’s all very interesting material, but most interesting — at least to me — was ATF’s list of top ten pistol exports for 2016-2023. With an eye-popping 49.7 percent of the US export market from 2016-2023, there’s little reason to wonder why SIG SAUER is regarded as the 800-pound gorilla.

Conversely, the top 10 countries importing pistols into the United States were Austria, Brazil, Croatia, Germany, Turkey, Czechia, Italy, Philippines, Argentina and Israel. You can look at the list and pick out your favorite brands. You also see why the competition between GLOCK and SIG is quiet, but fierce.

There are innumerable data points in the lengthy report. You can see them for yourself here.

The final recommendations to the report point to the standard talking point of the Dettelbach tenure…that guns should be harder to get. Dettelbach recommends . . .

1. Law Enforcement Agencies Further Evaluate the Discretionary Resale of Firearms
2. Expansion of the ATF’s eTrace and National Integrated Ballistic Information Network use to all LEAs
3. Prevent firearms trafficking to persons prohibited from purchasing and possessing firearms,

Interestingly, the idea of enforcing existing laws rather than expanding systems was third on the list of suggestions.

We’ll keep you posted.