Supporters say he has enhanced public safety by implementing Biden’s gun control agenda while gun rights advocates say he curtailed their constitutional rights.
Steven Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), will officially resign on Jan. 18.
In the more than two and a half years Dettelbach has led the ATF, the agency has drawn the praise and support of Democrats who say he has enhanced public safety by implementing President Joe Biden’s gun control agenda.
Republicans and Second Amendment advocates have been critical of the ATF for what they consider its heavy-handed and unconstitutional actions.
An ATF spokesperson confirmed Dettelbach’s resignation but said she could not provide a copy of his letter.
“Director Dettelbach has rendered his resignation to President Biden effective January 18, 2025. Leading the courageous and incredible men and women of ATF has been the greatest honor of his professional life,” spokesperson Kristina Mastropasqua wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.
Dettelbach began working at ATF on July 13, 2022. At that time, he vowed to support Second Amendment rights while fighting crime and reducing violence.
Under Dettelbach’s leadership, the ATF has focused on privately made guns. Called “ghost guns,” these firearms are untraceable and have become a favorite of criminals, according to Dettelbach. The agency also targets the manufacturing of parts to convert legal guns into illegal guns.
Last September, Dettelbach said the number of these devices seized by police had increased by 570 percent. He attributed this to the rise of 3D printing technology.
“They’re actually just being printed by inexpensive 3D printers in homes and garages everywhere,” he said.
Critics say that under Dettelbach, the agency curtailed Americans’ constitutional rights more than crime.
They say that under Dettelbach’s watch, the ATF reinterpreted the National Firearms Act of 1938 and the Gun Control Act of 1968 to advance Biden’s gun control agenda. They point to the agency’s attempt to outlaw pistol stabilizing braces and the redefinition of what constitutes a gun dealer as two examples.
In the first, the ATF announced a new rule outlawing pistol stabilizing braces. The devices were meant to assist disabled shooters to safely and accurately fire pistols based on rifle platforms. The ATF rule stated that the braces converted the pistols into illegal short-barreled rifles.
Gun rights groups sued the ATF, and a federal court ruled that the ban violated the Administrative Procedure Act. The government has appealed the ruling.
The redefinition of gun dealers was in line with the Biden administration’s attempt to close the so-called “gun show loophole” through a new rule last April.
The new rule expanded the definition of “engaged in the business” of selling guns from selling or offering to sell guns for one’s livelihood, to selling guns to “predominantly earn a profit.” This would require anyone selling a single gun to have a Federal Firearms License (FFL) and to conduct background checks on customers.
Bartering or trading guns for things other than money is included in the rule.
On June 11, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, for the Northern District of Texas, blocked the rule, stating it was based on “highly problematic” presumptions.
The agency has also been criticized for raids in which critics claim ATF agents used excessive force. This includes the 2023 raid on the home of an Oklahoma man, Russell Fincher, who later pleaded guilty to one felony count of selling guns without a license.
The predawn raid on the house of Little Rock, Ark., airport executive Bryan Malinowski drew the particular ire of many gun rights activists.
Malinowski was shot and killed by ATF agents after they broke through his front door at 6 a.m. on March 19. Testifying before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on May 23, Dettelbach said little about the raid and apologized to Malinowski’s widow.
“Whenever these things happen, it’s a tragedy. Of course, we’re sorry. Everybody is sorry that this occurred,” Dettlebach said.
According to his online biography, Dettelbach has 30 years in government service. Before coming to the ATF, he was the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio from 2009 to 2016. He was in private practice when Biden tapped him for the ATF position in 2022.
Trump has been critical of Biden’s Second Amendment policies and the ATF in particular. He has promised to promote Second Amendment rights including a law requiring all states to honor the concealed weapons permits of other states in the same way that driver’s licenses are honored.
“It has to cross state lines,” he told a National Rifle Association gathering in the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg in February.