There's a well-documented pipeline between so-called public service positions and special interest groups. This is especially pronounced among groups like gun control, where an alarming number of ATF officials end up with anti-gun groups. But that door swings both ways, too. Biden's Office of Gun Violence Prevention was a jobs program for anti-gunners.
And then we have New Jersey.
That's right, the Garden State that thinks the Second Amendment rulings from the Supreme Court shouldn't really apply to them has just hired an anti-gunner for an important state position.
Attorney General Jennifer Davenport today announced the selection of Philip Bangle to be the next director of the Statewide Affirmative Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Office, New Jersey’s first-in-the-nation office with the specific mandate of bringing civil enforcement actions against firearm companies to hold them accountable for violations of the law that harm the health and safety of residents.
“Phil Bangle is an extremely talented public-interest advocate with a strong track record of holding corporate defendants accountable when they harm the community,” said Attorney General Davenport. “We are also deeply grateful to Jeremy Ershow for his service as Acting Director, and for all he has done to build the SAFE office since its inception in 2022.”
Bangle was most recently the Senior Director of Affirmative Litigation at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, where he managed impact-driven litigation against firearms manufacturers and dealers on behalf of victims of mass shootings, municipalities, and states. Most recently, in August 2025, he secured the largest jury verdict in a contested case against a gun company in history, when a jury awarded the City of Baltimore $62 million from Hanover Armory, a firearms retailer that had flooded the city with ghost guns.
Of course, since no firearm manufacturer is actually doing anything illegal, this is a pretty cushy gig, all things considered. State government pay and benefits, no real responsibilities to speak of, and a chance to continue your anti-gun work on the taxpayer's dime? What else could an anti-gun jihadist want, besides maybe a pony?
And really, at that point, you're just being greedy.
"But Tom, what about Baltimore? He won that case."
So-called ghost guns are different, but only because of the nature of the laws around them. They're not guns, so they're not regulated like them by the ATF, but some companies sold them to people living in areas where privately made firearms are illegal. I get the thinking of doing so, especially since they're still not firearms at that point, but the courts disagreed.
Most of the producers of these products don't play that game anymore, and no actual gun manufacturer does anything but follow the law, if for no other reason than to make sure they can stay in business.
But that's not what bugs me so much about this. What bugs me is that yet again, we see this pipeline back and forth between anti-gun groups and governments around the nation, without a peep about the way that looks from the same people who swear the gun industry has bought Congress outright.
There aren't former ATF officials at the NRA, GOA, or NSSF, after all, but that's only good and right, while anti-gunners are filled with them. Again, that is only good and right because the jihadists' strength is that of 10 because their hearts are pure or something.
Like we buy that.
No, anti-gun groups are cozied up with politicians and government officials in a way that really smells like last week's fish dinner, and the mainstream media won't say anything about it.
Good thing I don't work for them.
