My Hero

Superman used to be my favorite superhero. Now, believe it or not, I think that’s Robert Cekada, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Superman can do lots of cool stuff, but he’s not technically real. By contrast, Robert Cekada legitimately changed the world, at least my little part of it.

That guy just helped roll back some of the most onerous unconstitutional laws in American history. He recently made the formal announcement that the federal government would no longer enforce the portions of the National Firearms Act (NFA) that pertain to sound suppressors and short-barreled shotguns and rifles. Robert Cekada’s announcement did more to promote the cause of individual liberty than anything else in my lifetime.

Don’t let the selective enforcement thing hang you up. Cekada and Co. were faced with an impossible situation once Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas ruled that portions of the NFA were invalid in his jurisdiction. Trying to enforce those inane rules piecemeal across multiple jurisdictions was quite literally impossible. As a result, they did the only sensible thing and just ignored them all. The Biden Administration ignored lots of immigration laws. If you need one, there’s your precedent.

Transformations

In the past, the BATFE had a well-earned reputation for antipathy toward American gun owners that occasionally spilled over into downright villainy. Back during the Clinton administration, they were pretty quick to incinerate children. However, that was 33 years ago. It’s different now.

I have had my own 07/02 manufacturer’s FFL for the better part of two decades. Every interaction I have had with the BATFE has been gleaming … every single one. The BATFE folks have been unexceptionally professional, friendly, and helpful. I actually invited a couple of our local BATFE guys out to shoot. I ended that day with two great friends whom I cherish to this day. Your mileage may vary, but personally, I’m impressed.

Many take umbrage with the very existence of the BATFE. I get that. I really do. However, in the storied annals of federal law enforcement agencies, these folks — at least the ones I’ve dealt with — seem to be trying to do it right. I have found that if you keep your nose clean and obey the law, you really have little to fear from the cops.

The director of the BATFE is a political appointee. Whoever holds that position is a reflection of the Presidential administration. As bizarre as it is, the current administration is the most gun-friendly in recent history. I’m typically pretty hard on my government, but we should give credit where credit is due.

Robert Cekada served as a cop in both New York City and Broward County, Florida, prior to joining the Feds. He assessed into BATFE in 2005. I’ve never met Director Cekada personally; however, I know some folks who have, and I have watched him speak online. Cekada seems like a guy who is committed to enforcing the law while simultaneously protecting the rights of law-abiding Americans. We may not like those laws, but, to be honest, that is the perfect mix for a federal lawman. It is insightful to ponder how we got here.

The Earth Moves

Transformational events seldom happen suddenly. There is typically some prologue or preamble. In this case, that happened on 8 November 2016. This was the day Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the race to the White House.

I went to bed that night expecting to wake up to a generation of socialist darkness. I awoke in the middle of the night to discover that Trump had actually won. I did not go back to sleep.

You may not care for President Trump. A great many Americans do not. Many of my friends are counted among that cohort. However, love him or hate him, there’s never been another American President who even comes close. That’s because Donald Trump is not a politician. He is a billionaire New York real estate developer. He runs the American government more like a high-intensity corporation than a federal bureaucracy. His enemies despise him for that. He and I certainly don’t agree on everything, but Trump is without a doubt the most transformational chief executive in generations.

The Catalyst

As I told my friends the morning after the election, the only thing that matters is the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). Everything else is fluff. Because Trump beat Clinton, he got to appoint conservative justices. Constitutional purists in both Congress and the Judiciary are what ultimately led to the recent announcement that the National Firearms Act (NFA) was essentially dead. Cekada et al. knew that, if the Hendrix ruling were contested, SCOTUS would ultimately uphold it. By contrast, had Hillary won, the Supreme Court would be irrevocably stacked with Leftists willing to castrate the U.S. Constitution on the altar of political expediency and wokeness.

We can now buy sound suppressors just as though they were conventional firearms. All those ridiculous barrel-length dicta have gone out the window as well. And guess what? The sky did not fall, and blood did not run in the streets. The bad guys were doing whatever they wanted already anyway. Gutting the NFA just takes some of the pressure off of those of us who actually obey the law.

There was absolutely no reason back in 1934 for the government to hallucinate up all these stupid rules in the first place. Sound suppressors are harmless. They should be sold in vending machines at elementary schools. It was asinine that you could walk out of a gun shop with a handgun that would hide in your front pocket, but a 14.5-inch barrel on an AR-15 rifle was a felony good for a decade behind bars. Robert Cekada’s recent announcement finally made that right.

This certainly isn’t perfect, and we still have a long way to go. SCOTUS is set to tackle assault weapons, whatever they actually are, this term. That will be fun to watch. Regardless, it’s a brave new world, my friends — a brave new world, indeed. God bless America.

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