President Joe Biden is seeking to beef up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) budget to $1.9 billion in fiscal year 2024, a $663 million increase in funding compared to the end of the Obama administration’s fiscal year 2017 budget.
Under Biden’s proposed fiscal year 2024 budget, the ATF would receive $1.9 billion in federal funding, an increase of roughly 50% or $663 million compared to the end of the Obama administration’s fiscal year 2017 budget of $1.237 billion. Biden’s budget coincides with several gun control measures, including pistol stabilizer rules, ghost gun rules and a “zero tolerance” policy for gun dealers.
“Especially through the Department of Justice, and in particular with the ATF, this administration has declared all-out-war on the Second Amendment,” director of federal affairs for Second Amendment advocacy group Gun Owners of America (GOA), Aidan Johnston, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Whether it’s their demands for significant increases in funding for enforcement, by arbitrarily changing statutory definitions via executive fiat, or by implementing a zero tolerance policy to shutdown firearms dealers and expand an illegal gun registry, President Biden and his anti-gun cabal are doing everything they can to harass, discourage, and chip away at gun owners and the community as a whole.”
Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget would provide additional funding to the ATF to further regulate the firearms industry, create gun trafficking strike forces, enforce background checks and implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, according to the budget. Alongside the DOJ and ATF, the FBI will receive $51 million to support the continued implementation of enhanced background checks required by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
If the proposed budget for fiscal year 2024 is passed, the ATF’s budget would increase by 35.7% or $500 million compared to the final year 2020 budget of $1.4 billion when Biden took office. Year over year, the budget would increase by $200 million, a 13.6% increase from the fiscal year 2023 budget.
Hellbound and Down 