President Trump’s new deputy director of the FBI Dan Bongino visited the offices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) this week.
With the photos below, the former NYPD officer and U.S. Secret Service agent reported: “Paid a visit to the ATF today. It’s a new era — one where Americans will be kept safe and their Constitutional rights will be protected.”
(After his time in law enforcement, Bongino became a nationally recognized figure hosting The Dan Bongino Show, a syndicated radio show and podcast, eventually replacing the late right-wing icon Rush Limbaugh. In the Secret Service, he served on the details for presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He was banned from YouTube in 2022.)
The official White House account on X amplified Bongino’s post and wrote: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.”
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 21, 2025https://t.co/L6gjmbYC1C
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey also shared the post and repeated the phrase “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED” in all-caps Trump-signature style.
Media personality and licensed firearm manufacturer Brandon Herrera (a.k.a The AK Guy) replied to Bongino: “[expletive] them up, Dan!” with three fire emojis.
Not all MAGA supporters are impressed with Bongino’s post. As self-described “freedom fighter” Charlie Coks replied on X: “Encouraging but in 2016 the same thing was being said by his administration, all we got was a bumpstock ban among other things. Results is what matters.”
Another wrote: “Don’t believe the hype. The ATF, FBI and DOJ will ALWAYS be terrorist agencies. Leaders come and go, but the rotten agencies remain.”
Other Second Amendment rights advocates are calling on Trump and Bongino to “abolish the ATF” and to “repeal the Hughes amendment.”
The Hughes amendment, which was proposed by Rep. William J. Hughes (D-NJ) and signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, bans the civilian ownership of new machine guns, unless authorized by the ATF. (According to ATF, as of 2021 there were about 741,000 legally registered machine guns in the U.S.)
On August 21, 2024, Trump-appointed District Judge John W. Broomes threw out charges against a 22-year-old Kansas man for illegal machine gun possession as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. (The man faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.)
The anti-gun violence organization Everytown denounced the Broomes ruling as “extreme and reckless” and said machine guns are “weapons of war, capable of causing irreparable harm to countless innocent people, [which] have no place in our communities.”
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