“President Trump should appoint a new ATF director as soon as possible. Gun owners need someone who is constitutionally minded, a friend of the firearms industry and community, and who has the determination and fortitude to start unraveling decades of ATF’s targeting of gun owners and malfeasance against the Second Amendment.”
With Steve Dettelbach officially out as the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Deputy Director Marvin Richardson will return as the default head of the embattled agency.
This isn’t the first time Richardson has run the Bureau, having previously been Acting Director from 2021 to 2022. And if gun owners believe that a career ATF employee will be better for gun rights than a political activist like former Director Dettelbach, they might be surprised to learn of Mr. Richardson’s history at the helm of the ATF. In fact, Richardson was the driving force behind the ATF’s war on pistol braces and privately manufactured firearms (PMFs).
In 2020, AmmoLand News learned through inside ATF contacts that, days after that presidential election, ATF acting director Regina Lombardo and acting assistant director Richardson began to collude with the Biden transition team to prioritize the Bureau’s goals.
By John Crump
