As I've said way too many times at the start of pieces in the last week, the midterms were not good for the pro-gun world. As it stands, President Trump has taken the outcome to mean that maybe he's been too aggressive on enforcing immigration laws, which is basically a case of him figuring that if he doesn't right the ship, 2028 isn't going to go well, either.
Over at the ATF, it might be easy to figure that the director would also be feeling the heat.
According to Lee Williams at The Gun Writer, though, that couldn't be further from the truth.
ATF Director Robert Cekada was flying with Todd Blanche, the 88th Attorney General of the United States, Sunday night when the two men started talking.
Of course, the recent midterm election losses were discussed, as were ATF’s priorities.
Cekada said Monday that his response to the election was simple: He will not change.
“We’re forging ahead,” he said. “I am pushing all of the rules that we told everyone to modernize. We are going to repeal all of the old Biden rules.”
Once the ATF rules are formalized, everyone will have protections that they need, Cekada said.
“It takes almost two years to change the rules,” Cekada said. “That gives Congress a lot of time.”
Cekada said he has no plans to resign after the election losses were tallied.
“I am not going anywhere unless the President fires me,” he said. “I am not going anywhere.”
Cekada is still angry about the ongoing actions of some former staffers, like former ATF assistant director Marianna Mitchem, who is now an official with Everytown for Gun Safety and constantly providing false information and fictitious stats to the anti-gun media.
“Everytown would love to see me go, but they should be ready for a fight,” Cekada said. “Especially when former ATF employees are spewing lies over there.”
Honestly, for once in my life, a lack of change from the ATF is good news.
Since the start of the Trump administration, we've seen numerous moves from the ATF that would have been anathema under POTATUS. Since Cekada took over, the positive improvements have gone into overdrive, making Cekada an anomaly: an ostensibly pro-gun ATF director. It cannot be overstated how big this has been.
But if he had decided his fortunes as director rested on playing nice with anti-gun Democrats and was interested in those fortunes, we could be in a lot of trouble.
Instead, he's defiant and basically telling them to learn to deal with disappointment.
Not in those words, mind you, because he's a professional and that wouldn't exactly be wise, even if he's not interested in playing ball with them. No reason to give them more ammunition to come after him and the ATF, after all.
Still, the defiance is real. He will not change. He's not going anywhere. That means we've got Robert Cekada for another couple of years at least, which is enough time to hopefully reshape the culture of the ATF to one where they spend less time harassing law-abiding gun owners and gun stores and more time going after illicit gun dealers and traffickers.
Here's hoping.