Trump blasts Biden gun record in NRA speech, vows to fire ATF director

Speaking at a National Rifle Association event in Harrisburg, Penn., former President Donald Trump vowed to preserve the Second Amendment and to roll back Biden administration gun control efforts.

Trump highlighted his own record on gun rights, saying "a lot of people didn't really believe the things I was able to do for the gun owners."

He further declared that "Biden is trying to ban all private gun transfers in the United States with the stroke of a pen" and lamented the Biden administration's "vicious zero-tolerance policy" for gun dealers.

He appeared to reference a White House policy announced in June of 2021 declaring that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) would seek to revoke the license of firearms dealers for first-time violations.

He further vowed to fire Biden administration officials across multiple agencies, whom he said were hostile to gun owners.

"On day one, we will sack the radical gun grabber [ATF Director] Steve Dettelbach and we're gonna replace him with an ATF director who respects the sacred right to keep and bear arms," he declared. "We will fire ultra-left Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and appoint a secretary who truly loves our hunters, fishermen, sportsmen, and outdoorsmen like my sons."

Trump spent much of the speech addressing what he perceived to be a "two-tiered justice system," highlighting the contrast between the recent decision of special counsel Robert Hur not to charge President Joe Biden over his handling of classified materials and special counsel Jack Smith's prosecution of him over a similar issue.

He then vowed to weed out corruption in the administration, asserting that "the Justice Department persecutes law-abiding gun owners and pro-life Christians" while letting criminals go unpunished.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.