Gun rights advocates expect Robert Cekada to change the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives policy focus if he is confirmed.
President Donald Trump has nominated a 20-year veteran of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to be its new director. The ATF has been run by interim directors since former Director Steve Dettelbach resigned just before Trump began his second term in January.
The nomination was referred to the Senate’s Judiciary Committee. Cekada has been an ATF deputy director since last April.
Second Amendment advocacy groups praised the choice.
Erich Pratt, senior vice president for Gun Owners of America (GOA), said Cekada should reform the agency.
“If Mr. Cekada is confirmed, we hope he will break with ATF’s current legacy of tyranny and work with GOA to end the agency’s egregious acts and honor both the letter and spirit of the Second Amendment,” Pratt wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.
Knox Williams, president and executive director of the American Suppressor Association (ASA), said Cekada has worked to protect the rights of those in the gun industry as well as American gun owners.
Suppressors, commonly called silencers, reduce the sound of a firearm discharge. They are regulated similarly to machine guns under the National Firearms Act. According to its website, the ASA wants to reduce such regulations so Americans can use suppressors to protect their hearing.
“In his role as deputy director, we have worked closely with Robert Cekada to ensure law-abiding gun owners have a seat at the table in shaping policy,” Williams said.
The White House, ATF, and several gun control organizations did not respond to emails seeking comment by publication time.
Under former Director Steve Dettelbach’s leadership, the ATF focused on privately made guns, often referred to as “ghost guns,” and the manufacturing of parts that can be used to convert legal guns into guns that can perform outlawed functions.
Under Dettelbach, the ATF outlawed pistol-stabilizing braces, which were designed to assist disabled shooters. The agency also expanded the definition of “engaged in the business” of selling guns from selling or offering to sell guns for one’s livelihood, to selling guns to “predominantly earn a profit.”
