The Alcohol Bureau, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) have a history of trapping and raiding private gun owners, but the agency is now reporting to new FBI director Kash Patel (for now), and Second Amendment advocates want him to fix it.
Patel was recently appointed acting director for the ATF and has replaced former President Joe Biden's director, Steve Bettlbach. The Biden administration's ATF has been aggressively cracking down on firearms, and gun owners are still upset by the outcome.
A few days before Biden announced new regulations on gun parts, about half a dozen ATF agents stormed the veteran's home where they had cut out gun parts.
That was Patrick “Tate” Adamiac, a US Navy veteran. Arrest In 2022, after his home was attacked by federal agents. According to his website, he was ultimately sentenced to 20 years in prison for “being treated with illegal machine guns and allegedly owning a hand-held bullet and a rocket launcher.”
However, the weapons were not functional – they were historical relics and cut out parts of the gun, his lawyer told the caller to appeal Matthew Larosiery. (Related: Some of the biggest mysteries Trump's FBI should solve are:
The ATF obtained a search warrant using a Crime Past Secret Information Provider (CI).
“He was already a felony and he had a .22 caliber handgun at his home,” Larosiery told the caller, adding that the CI was violating federal law.
“And the ATF said, okay, yes, you know, we're going to disappoint you. We'll let you get away with this, but we'll have to take someone selling machine guns on the internet, right?”
ATF welcomes acting director Kash Patel to ATF. ATF was the first to visit the ATF headquarters in Washington, DC today. We are keen to work together for a safer America! #wearatf pic.twitter.com/3kmkkfsglv
– ATF HQ (@atfhq) February 24, 2025
The CI uses the site “Gun Broker” to find illegal machine guns online, but according to Larosierie, it has become shorter.
Instead of illegal weapons, he found people selling gun parts kits. He bought parts for Adamiac guns and brought them to the ATF, claiming that they made up the machine guns.
“This was enough for the ATF to get a search warrant, destroy the Adamiac home and tear the entire location, and found a bundle of these cut gun parts,” Larosiery said.
The ATF also discovered a deactivated rocket launcher labeled “Training Aid Dummy.”
“They accused him of all the guns and rocket launchers that were cut, and they went to trial for guns, as if they were a complete and functional item,” Larosiery told the caller.
Adamiac is currently spending two years in prison for 20 years despite his release from the Navy with full honor.
🚨breaking🚨
ATF's chief counsel Pamela Hicks was fired and escorted from Washington, DC headquarters.
Since taking up position in 2021, Hicks has overseen the enforcement of all Biden infringements in the Second Amendment. pic.twitter.com/cvg8hn2gvp
– American gun owners (@gunowners) February 20, 2025
His family had to set a divesendgo Raise funds for his legal battle.
“Anything accused of making Tate use credit cards to make purchases now is still on sale,” Larosiery emphasized.
He pointed to Biden's frame and receiver rules and noted that the government would use it to charge Tate before it was implemented.
The rules have been challenged in courts and the government is losing, he said.
“So, why is the interpretation that it is so deviant and has nothing to do with the law, is not acceptable to apply it in a civic context, but to put a 26-year-old man in prison for 20 years?”
Federal Court of Appeals I hit it The 2023 regulations deemed it “illegal.”
Rather than surveillance Americans, Patel insisted on reorienting the FBI to catch criminals, allowing the ATF to be taken in a similar direction.
Firearms owners and the firearms industry are overwhelmed by regulations that have been weaponized to target civil gun owners, gun rights experts told callers.
In one instance, Biden's ATF introduced rules that would turn thousands of gun owners into felons if they did not register government-adorned firearms.
John Comerford, executive director of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Measures (NRA-ILA), said ATF often gives “inconsistent guidance” and often gives “inconsistent guidance” with regulations that allow Americans to land in prisons, particularly those.
“We've seen ATFs provide inconsistent guidance too often,” he said. “They will provide guidance on the issue, then they will change their minds and then they will change their minds again.”
“We don't want a policy to turn gunners into felons overnight,” Comerford emphasized, adding that agents need consistency and efficiency.
Kash Patel testified at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on US President Donald Trump's candidate to become director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on January 30, 2025, in Washington, D.C., in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Anna Money Maker/Getty Images)
There are two main elements of an ATF: Criminal Enforcement and Industry Regulation, Adam Kraut, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation, told The Caller.
Kraut pointed to the Biden administration's “zero tolerance policy” on federal firearms licenses (FFL).
Biden has introduced a zero-tolerance policy to revoke firearm sellers' licenses.
Under the first Trump administration, the ATF got their licenses in “appropriate circumstances,” but under Biden, the ATF revoked them in “first violations,” except for “extraordinary circumstances,” according to American gun owners.
“If you look at some of the ATF's revocation licenses, you'll see that in many cases it's an error that doesn't really interfere with the ATF's law enforcement function,” says former gun store manager Kraut. (Related: Whistleblowers claim that the ATF is drafting rules that could effectively ban the sale of civilian firearms)
He added that the regulatory aspect of the ATF may not be “burden” when dealing with FFLS.
If my dog doesn't start to act, I will testify against the ATF again.
– Brandon Herrera (@theakguy) January 28, 2024
Since the launch of the ATF, it has targeted gun owners, collectors and dealers, but has increased the law during the Biden administration.
“During the Biden administration, we saw more attacks on gun owners, the gun industry, and the ATF gun sellers.
He said the NRA litigation office is “more active” than ever before, resulting from the previous administration's crackdown on gun rights.
“With Kash Patel's appointment as acting director for the ATF, there is an opportunity to truly focus on the president's executive order through the Attorney General to review these polices from the Biden administration that affects firearm owners,” Commerford said.
“We are confident that acting director Patel has the constitutional interests of American gun owners in his heart,” he told the caller.
Tate is not the only person in recent years to be targeted by ATFs.
In January, the agency stormed the second revision activist and his home family. Activist Mark “Choppa” Manly told the second Amendment Foundation where the ATF handcuffed him and his 17-year-old daughter.
The family was never officially informed why they were “misdirected by an agency,” according to the report.
The ATF SWAT team stormed the home of Brian Marinowski, executive director at Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2024.
The search warrant reportedly has been approved by agents to investigate evidence of Marinovsky, who sells firearms without a license.
He died three days after exchanging a shootout with a federal agent, and his lawyer said there was no evidence that the agent had knocked on Malinovsky's door before raiding his home.
Waco Siege is a reminder of the senseless violence that the ATF's long history claims to American life.
Their self-righteous crusades to punish Americans and trample on their constitutional rights must come to an end forever. pic.twitter.com/e0qop3vmea
– Rep. Eric Burlison (@Repericburlison) February 28, 2025
Tate's lawyer told the caller about YouTuber Matthew Hoover.
He promoted the automatic keycards with drawings of “what looked vaguely like a machine gun” – device This allows the firearm to function effectively as a completely automatic weapon.
“[An] ATF Tech Branch officials took one of the cards, ignored the lines, and created their own machine gun devices from the cards. “But sometimes, sometimes he could take off two shots, and that was it.”
He added that Hoover was “teared from his young child.” government He is currently in prison.
When the ATF did not raid the homes of civilian gun owners, it allowed thousands of guns to fall into the hands of Mexican cartels.
The Obama administration has launched a “fast and intense operation” to target the ostensibly Mexican cartel. Administration officials say that “straw buyers” are said to be tracking the arms market, “we were allowed to buy guns and sell them to the cartels. (Related: Exclusive: GOP Senator wants to make sure Biden's “illegal” gun registration is dead.)
A “straw buyer” is someone who buys something for another individual and masks a real identity. Buyer. Congressional investigations revealed that the ATF was unable to track more than 2,000 guns associated with the program.
The Davids, a Christian branch led by David Koresh, lived at the Mount Carmel Center ranch in the Elk, Texas community. (Photo by Steven Reece/Sygma/Sygma By Getty Images)
But the most infamous ATF scandals are Waco and Ruby Ridge.
A 51-day standoff between federal agents of the religious cult and members of the religious cult in Waco, Texas, killed four ATF agents and 82 branch Davids in 1993.
After the FBI team tried to save the children inside, their compounds were engulfed in flames.
ATF's “Remember Waco” page It said it investigated the involvement of the branch's Davidians in the ownership and manufacture of illegal weapons. The agency notes that in an investigation by the DOJ and the Ministry of Finance, it determined that “some tactics and decisions had been implemented poorly.”
Waco came after Ruby Ridge. There, in August 1992, FBI agents and former US S stormed the lands of Randy Weaver in Idaho.
Never forget
On this day 31 years ago, an FBI attack on Ruby Ridge properties began.
Federal agents killed Randy Weaver's 14-year-old son after shooting him in the back with a dog
The next day, a federal sniper kills Randy's wife in the family's cabin… pic.twitter.com/dfpjpbdhgi
– The end of the wokeness (@endwokeness) August 21, 2023
Weaver is said to have sold two ATF agents, Saweed Shotguns, but ultimately earned the most severe fee. Coeur D'Alene Press.
Agents wanted Weaver, who was attending the Aryan Conference, to infiltrate the group and become an informant. Weaver refused and set out to Iowa for Idaho.
After being offered a warrant for a firearms claim, he did not appear in court after receiving the wrong date first. When he was issued another warrant, the Weaver family told the DOJ “will not comply.” [the] The outlet pointed out.
During the 11-day standoff, federal agents shot Weaver, shot and kill her wife (while she hugged her young son), shot and killed Weaver's 14-year-old son, and kill Weaver's dog. William Degan's vice president was also killed during the siege.
Two of the worst cases of government abuse happened about 30 years ago, but the ATF continues to use aggressive tactics and impose inconsistent regulations on firearms.
The new administration and its acting directors will have the opportunity to look into the tactics employed by the ATF, Kraut told callers.
“Whether it's the state or federal government, the entire government has chosen to use tactics like SWAT teams and high-risk warrant teams to implement these warrants.
