One Forgotten Government Agency Has Tormented Americans For Years — Kash Patel Could Fix It

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) has a history of entrapping and raiding private gun owners — but the agency now reports to new FBI Director Kash Patel (for now), and second amendment advocates want him to fix it.

Patel was recently named acting director of the ATF, replacing former President Joe Biden’s director Steve Bettleback. The Biden administration’s ATF aggressively cracked down on firearms, and gun owners are still reeling from the consequences.

Several days before Biden announced new regulations of gun parts, about a half dozen ATF agents raided the home of a veteran who collected cut up gun parts — and he was ultimately sentenced to two decades behind bars.

Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, a U.S. Navy veteran, was arrested in 2022 after his home was raided by federal agents. He was eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison for “allegedly dealing illegal machine guns and possessing grenade and rocket launchers,” according to his website.

However, the weapons weren’t functional — they were historical relics and cut up gun parts, his attorney on appeal Matthew Larosiere told the Caller. (RELATED: Here Are Some Of The Biggest Mysteries Trump’s FBI Should Solve)

The ATF obtained a search warrant by using a confidential informant (CI) with a criminal past.

“He had already been a felon, and he had a .22 caliber handgun in his home,” Larosiere told the Caller, adding that the CI was in violation of federal law.

“And so the ATF said, all right, look, you know, we’ll let you off. We’ll let you get away with this, but you have to bring us somebody who is selling machine guns on the internet, right?”

ATF welcomes Acting Director Kash Patel to ATF, who was sworn in and had his first visit to ATF Headquarters in Washington, D.C. today. We are enthusiastic to work together for a safer America! #WeAreATF pic.twitter.com/3KMkkfSGLv

— ATF HQ (@ATFHQ) February 24, 2025

The CI used the site “Gun Broker” to find illegal machine guns online, but came up short, according to Larosiere.

Instead of illegal weapons, he found people selling gun part kits. He purchased Adamiak’s gun parts and brought them to the ATF, arguing they constituted a machine gun.

“This was enough for the ATF to then proceed to get a search warrant and bust down Adamiak’s house, tear the whole place apart, and they found a bunch of these cut up gun parts,” Larosiere said.

The ATF also discovered a deactivated rocket launcher labeled “training aid dummy,” he noted.

“They charged him with all of the cut up guns and the rocket launchers as if they were complete and functional items, and they proceeded to trial on guns,” Larosiere told the Caller.

Adamiak is currently two years into a 20-year prison sentence, even though he was discharged from the Navy with full honors.

🚨BREAKING🚨

ATF’s Chief Counsel Pamela Hicks has been fired and escorted out of the Washington, D.C. headquarters.

Hicks oversaw the enforcement of every Biden infringement of the Second Amendment since taking the position in 2021. pic.twitter.com/Cvg8HN2gvP

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) February 20, 2025

His family had to set up a GiveSendGo to raise funds for his legal battle.

“Everything that Tate was charged with having you can buy right now using a credit card, like they are still for sale,” Larosiere emphasized.

He pointed to Biden’s frame and receiver rule, noting that before it was implemented, the government used it to charge Tate.

That rule is being challenged in the courts — and the government is losing, he said.

“So how can it be that an interpretation that is so devoid and … is so unrelated to the statute, is unacceptable to apply in a civil context, but acceptable to put a 26-year-old man in prison for 20 years?”

A federal court of appeals struck down the rule in 2023, deeming it “unlawful.”

Patel has argued for reorienting the FBI toward catching criminals instead of surveilling Americans, and he could take the ATF in a similar direction.

Gunowners and the firearm industry are weighed down by regulations that are weaponized by the ATF to target private gun owners, gun rights experts told the Caller.

In one instance, Biden’s ATF introduced a rule that would transform thousands of gun owners into felons if they did not register their braced firearms with the government.

Executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), John Commerford, told the Caller the ATF often puts out “inconsistent guidance,” particularly with regulations that could land Americans in jail.

“We far too often have seen ATF provide inconsistent guidance,” he said. “They will provide guidance on an issue and then change their mind and then change their mind again.”

“We don’t want policies that turn gunowners into felons overnight,” Commerford emphasized, adding that there needs to be consistency and efficiency at the agency.

The ATF has two primary components: criminal enforcement and industry regulation, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation Adam Kraut told the Caller.

Kraut pointed to the Biden Administration’s “zero-tolerance policy” for Federal Firearms Licenses (FFLs).

Biden introduced a zero-tolerance policy for rescinding licenses for firearm sellers.

Under the first Trump administration, the ATF took away licenses in “appropriate circumstances,” but under Biden the ATF revoked them on “initial violations,” barring “extraordinary circumstances,” according to Gun Owners for America.

“When you look at some of the basis for ATF revoking licenses, a lot of times, you’ll find that it’s errors that don’t actually impede ATF law enforcement function,” Kraut, a former gun store manager, said. (RELATED: Whistleblowers Allege ATF Is Drafting Rule That Could Effectively Ban Private Firearm Sales)

He added that the regulatory aspect of the ATF could be less “heavy-handed” when dealing with FFLs.

If my dogs don’t start behaving, I’m gonna testify against the ATF again.

— Brandon Herrera (@TheAKGuy) January 28, 2024

Since the ATF’s inception, it has targeted gun owners, collectors, and dealers — but it ramped up its lawfare during the Biden administration.

“During the Biden administration, we saw more attacks on gun owners, and in the gun industry, and gun dealers from the ATF than we’ve probably ever seen in history,” Commerford told the Daily Caller.

He said the NRA’s litigation office is “more active” now than ever, attributing it to the previous administration’s crackdown on gun rights.

“With Kash Patel’s appointment as acting director of ATF, there’s an opportunity to really focus on the President’s executive order through the Attorney General to review these polices from the Biden administration that impact firearm owners,” Commerford said.

“We do feel confident that acting director Patel has the constitutional interests of America’s gun owners at heart,” he told the Caller.

Tate is not the only person in recent years who has been targeted by the ATF.

In January, the agency raided the home of a Second Amendment activist and his family. The activist, Mark “Choppa” Manley, told the Second Amendment Foundation the ATF put him and his 17-year-old daughter in handcuffs.

The family was never officially informed why they were “mistakenly targeted” by the agency, according to the report.

An ATF SWAT team raided the home of Bryan Malinowski, an executive director of the Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2024.

The search warrant was reportedly approved for agents to investigate for evidence of Malinowski selling firearms without a license.

He died three days after exchanging gunfire with federal agents, and his attorney said there was no evidence demonstrating the agents knocked on Malinowski’s door before raiding his home.

The Waco siege is a bleak reminder of the ATF’s long history of senseless violence claiming American lives.

Their self-righteous crusade to punish Americans and trample constitutional rights must be put to an end permanently. pic.twitter.com/e0qOp3VMEA

— Rep. Eric Burlison (@RepEricBurlison) February 28, 2025

Tate’s attorney told the Caller about YouTuber Matthew Hoover.

He advertised auto key cards with drawings of “what vaguely looked like a machine gun auto sear” — a device that enables a firearm to effectively function as a fully automatic weapon.

“[An] ATF tech branch official took one of the cards, ignored the lines, made his own machine gun device from the card, and then it didn’t work,” Larosiere said. “But sometimes, occasionally, he would get two shots off, and that was it.”

He added that Hoover was “ripped away from his young children” by the government and is currently in prison.

When the ATF wasn’t raiding the homes of private gun owners, it was allowing thousands of guns to fall into the hands of the Mexican cartels.

The Obama administration launched “Operation Fast and Furious,” ostensibly to target the Mexican cartels. Officials in the administration allowed “straw purchasers” to buy guns and sell them to the cartels, purportedly to track the arms market. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: GOP Senators Want To Make Sure Biden’s ‘Unlawful’ Gun Regs Are Good And Dead)

A “straw purchaser” is someone who buys something for another individual, masking the identity of the real purchaser. A congressional investigation revealed the ATF failed to track over 2,000 guns linked to the program.

But the most infamous ATF scandals are Waco and Ruby Ridge.

A 51-day standoff between federal agents and members of a religious cult in Waco, Texas, in 1993 resulted in the deaths of four ATF agents and 82 Branch Davidians — including 25 children.

Their compound was engulfed in flames after an FBI team attempted to rescue the children inside.

The ATF’s “Remembering Waco” page said it investigated the Branch Davidians’ involvement in possessing and manufacturing illegal weapons. The agency notes that a DOJ and Treasury investigation found that “some tactics and decisions were poorly executed.”

Waco came in the wake of Ruby Ridge, where FBI agents and U.S. Marshals raided Randy Weaver’s compound in Idaho in August, 1992.

Never forget

On this day 31 years ago, the FBI attack on the Ruby Ridge property began

Federal agents murdered Randy Weaver’s 14 year old son by shooting him in the back along with his dog

The next day, a federal sniper killed Randy’s wife inside the family cabin while she… pic.twitter.com/dfPJpbDhGi

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 21, 2023

Weaver allegedly sold an ATF agent two sawed-off shotguns, and he was ultimately acquitted of the most severe charges, according to the Coeur d’Alene Press.

The agent wanted Weaver, who had attended Aryan Nations meetings, to infiltrate the group and become an informant. Weaver refused and left Iowa for Idaho.

After being served a warrant for a firearms charge, he failed to appear in court after initially receiving the incorrect date. When he was issued another warrant, the Weaver family told the DOJ it would “not obey [the] lawless government,” the outlet noted.

During an 11-day standoff, federal agents shot Weaver, shot and killed his wife (while she was cradling her infant son), shot and killed Weaver’s 14-year-old son and killed Weaver’s dog. Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan was also killed during the siege.

While two of the most egregious examples of government abuse happened around 30 years ago, the ATF continues to use aggressive tactics and impose inconsistent regulations on firearms.

The new administration and acting director have an opportunity to examine the tactics employed by the ATF, Kraut told the Caller.

“The government at large, whether it’s state or federal, has opted to utilize tactics… like SWAT teams or high risk warrant teams, to execute these warrants, which in turn, creates the issues that we’re seeing,” he said.