(USA Features) Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene on Thursday planned to introduce legislation that would ban the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, according to The Daily Caller, which first reported the story.
The Georgia Republican named the bill after Brian Terry, a former Marine and U.S. Border Patrol agent who was killed early in the Obama administration during a botched operation to track guns from American dealers back to Mexican drug cartels.
Greene took to Twitter to confirm the Daily Caller report.
“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 [sic] goal is to destroy our Second Amendment rights,” Greene .
According to the Daily Caller, Greene’s legislation includes:
- 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,” she added, in reference to Chipman’s statements during his Senate confirmation hearings supporting a ban on all privately-owned AR-15 rifles.
“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,” Greene added, according to the Dailly Caller.
Reps. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla, are all bill co-sponsors.
One gun-rights group applauded the measure.
“The ATF has been a scandal-ridden disaster long before operation Fast and Furious became front page news,” Aaron Dorr, the Executive Director of the American Firearms Association, told the Daily Caller, adding the legislation is long overdue.
“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,” he added.
The ATF was established as an agency within the Treasury Department in 1972. It was transferred to the Department of Justice as part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002.
Terry was killed in 2010 during Operation Fast and Furious, an Obama-era operation that was ultimately designed to justify new gun control legislation, then-CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson reported in December 2011.