{"id":1916517,"date":"2023-04-19T02:56:04","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T06:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-accuse-atf-of-overreach-during-budget-hearing\/"},"modified":"2023-04-19T03:00:15","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T07:00:15","slug":"republicans-accuse-atf-of-overreach-during-budget-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-accuse-atf-of-overreach-during-budget-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Accuse ATF of Overreach During Budget Hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frepublicans-accuse-atf-of-overreach-during-budget-hearing%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1916517&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0418\/de7853b6-b404-4f5a-b5ec-932576a3c407\/audio.mp3?length=4322637&#038;duration=360\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Steven Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), said his agency trusts local law enforcement to help it conduct firearms traces legally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe support police and trust police departments to submit traces when they relate to criminal investigations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Dettelbach testified before the\u00a0House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies during a budget hearing on April 18, 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Biden\u2019s budget proposal contains $1.9 billion for the ATF. This represents a 13.6 percent increase over fiscal 2022 and half a billion more than the agency\u2019s fiscal 2020 budget. Included are funds to expand the agency personnel from 5,463 to 5,965, which would include 183 new agents.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed budget would expand the ATF by 35.7 percent\u2014an overall expansion of more than 50 percent since the Obama administration.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5046101\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/02\/09\/Barretts-Outdoors-Pistol-Braces-1200x764.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Justin Barrett, owner of Barrett Outdoors in Durant, Okla., displays some pistol stabilizing braces. (Michael Clements\/The Epoch Times)<\/figure>\n<p>Gun rights groups have criticized the proposed budget, claiming the ATF is using a \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy to build an unconstitutional gun registry. Gun Owners of America (GOA) and others have asserted that ATF agents use unintentional clerical errors found during inspections as a pretext for shutting down gun dealers.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, gun dealers were required to keep transaction records for only 20 years. The ATF has changed that to require the documents to be kept permanently.<\/p>\n<p>When a shop closes, all its sales records are transferred to the government. GOA claims the ATF has aggregated these records into a central gun registry to track all firearms, whether they have been used in a crime or not.<\/p>\n<p>Committee member Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) asked Dettelbach how much ATF spends to digitize the records and whether the database they are building is searchable. Dettelbach could not provide an amount paid but said ATF follows guidelines set by Congress limiting when and how it can use the database to trace firearms.<\/p>\n<p>Dettelbach told Clyde that the ATF receives millions of paper records each month that must be manually entered into the ATF computers.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2051757\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2016\/04\/30\/Guns-Tracing-Firearms_Druk-1-1200x800.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> (John Minchillo\/AP Photo)<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe are, as far as I know, the only customer that pays additional money to have search function taken out of Adobe Acrobat,\u201d Dettelbach said.<\/p>\n<p>Clyde pointed out that one of the limits sought by Congress is that traces can only be done to investigate a \u201cbona fide\u201d crime. He said information from the National Criminal Instant Background Check system showed traces for found firearms, health and safety, food and drug health and safety, and abortion, among others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t see the crime here,\u201d Clyde said.<\/p>\n<p>Dettelbach said traces are done for local law enforcement agencies and that ATF assumes they are part of criminal investigations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe support police and trust the police department to submit traces when they relate to criminal investigations,\u201d Dettelbach said.<\/p>\n<p>Dettelbach told the committee that the ATF needs to expand to properly fight gun crime under the policies of President Joe Biden\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cATF\u2019s critical role in combating violent crime is contingent on Congress providing adequate funding to allow ATF to effectively implement the tools we have,\u201d Dettelbach told the committee in a written statement.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5138077\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/03\/21\/GettyImages-1247149144-1200x800.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Instructor Tom Nguyen (L) watches Kelly Siu fire a pistol during Defensive Pistol Class at Burro Canyon Shooting Park in Azusa, Calif., on Feb. 12, 2023. (Frederic J. Brown\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<p>Committee chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) opened the hearing by saying, \u201cMany folks are justifiably concerned about sweeping, seemingly poorly reasoned new rules emanating from the ATF in recent months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several committee members questioned the director on the agencies flip-flopping on the issue of pistol stabilizing braces. The ATF changed its position several times over 10 years on whether the devices were legal under the National Firearms Act or if they converted legal pistols into illegal short-barreled rifles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow is this not an attack on Americans\u2019 Second Amendment rights,\u201d Rogers asked.<\/p>\n<p>Dettelbach acknowledged there had been \u201cinconsistencies\u201d in the process. He said the agencies received numerous questions about the devices.<\/p>\n<p>The braces had changed over time, he said, so ATF was making determinations based on the evolving designs. He repeated his claim that ATF was only following the law passed by Congress.<\/p>\n<h2>Congress Writes the Law<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cWe are implementing t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steven Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), said his agency trusts local law enforcement to help it conduct firearms traces legally. \u201cWe support police and trust police departments to submit traces when they relate to criminal investigations,\u201d he said. Dettelbach testified before the\u00a0House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1615,"featured_media":1916518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[6527,13859,4463,3679,4006,3756],"class_list":["post-1916517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-accuse","tag-atf","tag-budget","tag-hearing","tag-overreach","tag-republicans"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1615"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1916517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1916518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1916517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1916517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1916517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}