ATF and DEA Merger: Good or Bad For Legal Firearm Owners?

At the time, some pro-rights organizations, including the Gun Owners of America (GOA), were sounding the alarm about what group leaders believed could be a dangerous thing for America’s lawful gun owners. Rather than abolishing the ATF, as the organization has called for, GOA believes this plan would strengthen the embattled agency, famous for persecuting lawful gun owners and gun sellers, giving the group more power than ever before. At the time the proposed merger was discovered, the organization quickly threw up a red flag.

“BREAKING. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has ordered DOJ to come up with a plan to potentially merge ATF and DEA,” the group stated in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “This would be a DISASTER for gun owners and the Second Amendment.”

On May 30, when the proposal was solidified, GOA again took to X to again sound the alarm about the potential negative ramifications of the merger.

“The White House just officially proposed merging ATF and DEA,” the group posted. “Just imagine: 3x ATF budget, 4x ATF tactical units, 10,000-plus new employees, reduced oversight and accountability. Merging is NOT abolishing, it’s a DANGEROUS Trojan Horse.”

Now, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) has joined GOA in voicing its opposition to what it calls a “dangerous” merger.

“The DOJ’s dangerous proposal would consolidate the ATF and DEA into an authoritarian ‘super-agency’ with the combined powers to wage the failed war on drugs and enforce unconstitutional federal gun control laws against all Americans, not just violent criminals and drug cartels,” FPC said in a recent press release. “By merging the ATF’s firearms enforcement authority into the DEA, the DOJ is effectively equating peaceable American gun owners with drug cartels, turning millions of law-abiding citizens—as well as their constitutionally protected weapons—into co-equal targets of a militarized federal enforcement regime.”

According to the FPC, the organization has provided many proposed reforms to the White House, DOJ and ATF, all of which would improve the lives of law-abiding Americans as well as access to rights and instruments protected by the Constitution. FPC believes that rather than creating massive new problems for gun owners, the DOJ should instead focus on implementing these proposed reforms, stop engaging in anti-Second Amendment litigation and prosecutions and support important Second Amendment challenges in the courts, especially the United States Supreme Court.

“We absolutely support the repeal of the unconstitutional federal gun control laws that underpin the ATF’s existence,” said FPC President Brandon Combs. “We very much look forward to the day the ATF is subsequently abolished. And we are proud to be working with the Trump Administration on efforts to remove federal regulations and red tape that separate Americans from the arms of their choosing.

“But merging the ATF with the DEA is a massive leap in the wrong direction. The Trump Administration and Congress should reject this dangerous proposal and stop the deep state from digging in deeper.”