Most reasonable people agree that it is a bad look when a regulator or other official from a federal agency leaves to work against the very product or service they regulated in their government duties.
However, throw in that the departed employee came from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and that should clear up the confusion.
After all, the controversial agency was well-staffed with opponents of Second Amendment rights until quite recently.
Former high-ranking ATF officials now paid by anti-gun Everytown
There is now word that Marianna Mitchem, the former ATF Associate Director of Field Operations (Industry Operations), defected to join Everytown for Gun Safety. While parading as a middle-of-the-road arbiter of gun control issues, the organization is well known for its strident anti-gun positions.
And now Mitchem works for the Michael Bloomberg-backed group seeking to eradicate Second Amendment freedoms.
Mitchem was intimately involved in the weaponization of the ATF
Noted investigative journalist Lee Williams revealed that the former ATF official will target Glock and similar handguns in her new duties. These popular weapons are in the crossfire of some municipalities over criminals’ use of illegal conversion switches to make them operate in full automatic mode.
Typical of the anti-gun mob. Divert all blame from the actual perpetrators of violence in the U.S. and throw every available resource at destroying the right to keep and bear arms.
Williams revealed that Mitchem’s tenure with the ATF began in 2005 when she began inspecting gun shops looking for violations. She never carried a service weapon and was not an ATF special agent.
However, she became a field supervisor in 2011 and was promoted multiple times before Steve Dettelbach took over the agency. At that point, her career appeared to skyrocket, and she was noted for her strident anti-gun stances.
For example, Mitchem was the driving force behind the ATF’s contentious frame or receiver rule as well as targeting hobbyists over so-called “ghost guns.”
She received harsh criticism for her advocacy of banning unserialized weapons. When the agency included pre-1968 firearms on the “ghost gun” banned list, this decision came despite there being no requirements for imprinting serial numbers on these antique weapons.
Something anyone with the slightest knowledge of firearms would realize.
This also came during the tumultuous period when the previous presidential administration implemented its onerous “zero tolerance” policies and even targeted private sales and pistol braces used by disabled shooters.
Thankfully, the courts struck down the latter two regulations, and there is virtually no chance that the current White House will object.
It is unclear whether Mitchem was booted from the ATF or left voluntarily to join Everytown. Her departure comes at a time of widespread housecleaning in the agency as opponents of gun rights are shown the door.
Mitchem is far from the first individual to leave public service and go to a private sector position heavily involved in their previous duties. Scores of lawmakers find the golden path from the Capitol to lucrative positions that are often at odds with their official responsibilities.
In her case, however, the official role involved a constitutional right.
Consider the reaction if a trusted lawmaker left Washington and went to work OPPOSING the Bill of Rights. Taking stands against free speech, freedom of religion, and other fundamental human liberties that all law-abiding Americans enjoy.
That person would be rightly vilified for selling out to forces intent on stripping constitutional freedoms away. How is Mitchem’s decision any different?
It’s not. She is now being paid to lobby against the very rights she previously was entrusted to protect.There’s no better way to show your patriotism than with merch that speaks before you do.
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