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U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., announced Tuesday that he is co-sponsoring a bill introduced by Rep. Eric Burlison, R-MO, that seeks to abolish the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
“I am proud to stand with my friend Eric Burlison as a co-sponsor of HR374, the ‘Abolish the ATF Act,'” Moore wrote in a post to his X account. “The ATF has repeatedly violated Americans’ Second Amendment rights, and it’s time to put an end to this unconstitutional overreach.”
In 1972, the ATF was established to regulate and enforce federal laws pertaining to the manufacture, sale, and possession of firearms, ammunition, explosives, as well as alcohol and tobacco products.
However, Republicans like Moore and Burlison are now targeting the ATF for devolution, arguing that the agency’s responsibilities would be better managed by the individual states.
“The ATF is a disaster,” Burlison told Fox News Digital in late November. He went on to describe the ATF as a “disaster agency” which has “been violating the… Second Amendment.”
“I think at the end of the day, this agency needs to be abolished, and we need to let the states police what happens to the states,” Burlsion added.
“ATF provides enormous benefits to the American public through all of its efforts fighting violent crime every day,” an ATF spokesperson told Fox News Digital in response to Burlison’s comments.
Calls to abolish the ATF gained some traction last year when then-Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-FL, introduced a bill much like Burlison’s. Both Burlison and Moore were co-sponsors on Gaetz’s proposal, alongside other members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus.
The ATF is just the latest in a growing list of federal agencies which President-elect Donald Trump and his allies are seeking to dismantle as part of an ultraconservative policy agenda.
Moore previously introduced a bill to abolish the Department of Education in 2023, a goal which has also been outlined in the Trump campaign’s Project 2025 manifesto and one which many congressional Republicans — like U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. — appear to be intent on achieving going into Trump’s second term.
Burlison has also called for the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency, as have other Republicans in the past including Gaetz and U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala.
