In a recent development, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has been appointed as the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), replacing FBI Director Kash Patel, according to sources familiar with the move.
Driscoll will maintain his position as Army Secretary while simultaneously serving as the acting head of the ATF. Patel had been serving in the dual role since his appointment in February.
The ATF, a Justice Department agency with over 5,200 employees and a $1.6 billion budget, is responsible for investigating gun crimes, among other duties. Patel had replaced Marvin Richardson, the previous acting ATF director.
It remains unclear how Driscoll’s dual role will impact his responsibilities at the Pentagon. He was on his first international trip as Army Secretary when his ATF appointment was confirmed.
Driscoll was confirmed as the 26th Secretary of the Army by the Senate in February, with a 66-28 vote. He is a close associate and former advisor to Vice President JD Vance. Driscoll served as an Army officer for four years, including a deployment to Iraq, and holds a law degree from Yale University. He has also worked in private equity and venture capital.
The announcement comes shortly after the Justice Department and ATF repealed a Biden-era gun policy that revoked licenses from federally licensed gun dealers who intentionally sold weapons without conducting background checks or falsified records.
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“This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right,” stated U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a press release. “The prior administration’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ policy unfairly targeted law-abiding gun owners and created an undue burden on Americans seeking to exercise their constitutional right to bear arms – it ends today.”
The administration also announced plans for an “in-depth review” of two other gun-related policies: the Stabilizing Brace rule, which reclassified certain firearms as short-barreled rifles, and a rule redefining who is “engaging in the business” of firearms dealing in the U.S.
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