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    The Black Powder Cartridge News Summer 2025

    The Black Powder Cartridge News Summer 2025

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    From the Editor

    Abolish the ATF?

    column By: Steve Garbe | June, 25

    Recently the news has been covering the efforts of several Republican lawmakers to promote a bill abolishing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The lawmakers claim that the BATF has made numerous unlawful and infringing restrictions to the Second Amendment, attempted to bypass Congressional and judicial oversight on new firearms law and has generally gone far beyond their designated authority and responsibilities. Operation “Fast and Furious” and the recent over-stepping of BATF’s regulatory role in the “Pistol Brace” controversy are but two prime examples of a government agency that seems to have seriously lost its way. Many American gun owners, myself included, think that the BATF needs to be reined in and reminded of a citizen’s rights under the U.S. Constitution. The idea that the BATF should be abolished and their responsibilities delegated to the States is a credible one that no doubt will be hotly debated in Congress.

    Revealed and exposed by the efforts of this new administration, we are seeing far too many examples of a severely bloated bureaucratic “deep state”, over-populated by unelected officials who have prioritized personal politics over protecting the rights and safety of law-abiding Americans. The thing that is truly frightening is the level and depth of the corruption that is being brought to light in many governmental agencies. I don’t believe that many of us really had an idea on how far wrong many of these bureaucracies had gone. I know that as a tax-paying American citizen, I am outraged at the waste and abuse of my tax dollars. This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue; this is simply holding government agencies to account for their behavior.

    However, given the very nature of a government bureaucracy we should not be surprised that is high time for a comprehensive review, house cleaning and streamlining. We are seeing many “veils” being lifted from some of our oldest government departments and it is patently obvious to anyone with average intelligence that the books need to be scrutinized and serious changes made. To argue otherwise is simply not admitting to the obvious.

    Will the BATF be abolished? I think not, but it does need to be seriously reminded of its responsibilities to the Constitution and possibly reassigned to law enforcement duties that make better use of our money.  Attempting to write firearms law is not one of those duties nor is the serious bureaucratic harassment of law-abiding gun owners, dealers and manufacturers. Agents of the BATF need to understand whom it is that they actually work for, maintain a high regard for the Constitution and do their job according to the law and not personal politics or agendas.

    Looking at many of our government agencies and reviewing their past performance is simply good stewardship by our elected officials. It also happens to be one of the reasons that we, the American voter, gave them a job and put them in office. A complete review of the BATF is good news for the American taxpayer and especially good news for the law-abiding American gun owner.

    – Gut Ziel

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