Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., planned to introduce a bill Thursday morning that would abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Daily Caller reported.
Greene’s bill was named after Brian A. Terry, a former Marine and Border Patrol agent killed during a botched operation to track guns smuggled across the southern border.
The congresswoman confirmed the news on Twitter after the Daily Caller broke the story.
"I’m introducing this legislation to #EliminateTheATF to protect ALL gun owners across this country from a tyrannical, power hungry group of bureaucrats who’s goal is to destroy our Second Amendment rights," Greene
tweeted.
Greene’s staff told the Daily Caller the bill would include:
- Alcohol, Tobacco, and other regulatory functions being transferred back to the FBI.
- Requires the FBI publish an itemized list on its website of all confiscated firearms and ammunition, which must be sold to Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) dealers via public auction before the Bureau closes.
- Proceeds from the auction are to be placed into a fund for the families of border patrol officers killed in the line of duty as a result of Operation Fast and Furious, providing grants up to $150,000 per family.
- Any remaining funds not used by 2032 will be re-directed to a program awarding states grant funds to establish firearm safety programs.
"Twelve years ago, under the direction of hate America leftist [former Attorney General] Eric Holder, the ATF smuggled firearms to Mexican drug cartels (Operation Fast & Furious) who then used those firearms to kill American hero Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry," Greene told Daily Caller. "This can NEVER be allowed to happen again.
"Joe Biden's nomination of gun-grabber David Chipman, who wants to ban, confiscate and destroy the most popular self-defense and hunting rifle in America owned by millions of American patriots, is a clear indication that the ATF’s war on gun owners is just beginning and is about to crank up.
"I’m introducing this legislation to Eliminate the ATF to protect ALL gun owners across this country from a tyrannical, power hungry group of bureaucrats whose goal is to destroy our Second Amendment rights."
Reps. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla, are bill co-sponsors.
Aaron Dorr, the Executive Director of the American Firearms Association, told the Daily Caller the legislation was overdue.
"The ATF has been a scandal-ridden disaster long before operation Fast and Furious became front page news," Dorr told the Daily Caller. "These days, they exist solely to attack the Second Amendment and the tens of millions of proud gun owners who fight to defend it. It’s high time this agency was eliminated, before they can do even more damage to freedom."
Terry was killed in 2010 while participating in operation "Fast and Furious," which allowed federal agents to sell weapons to known criminals in order to track the purchases to senior drug cartel members in Mexico.
ATF officially was established as an independent bureau within the Treasury Department in 1972, and then was shifted to the Department of Justice with the Homeland Security Act of 2002.
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