Gun Owners Sound Alarm Over Proposed ATF & DEA Merger

The Drug Enforcement Administration may soon gobble up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives if the White House’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget goes through.

Nestled on page 618 of the Supplement Appendix is a paragraph dedicated to merging the two entities into one.

“To most successfully, effectively, and efficiently continue the fight to eradicate the designated cartel FTOs [Foreign Terrorist Organizations] and seek to eliminate violent crime, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) into will be incorporated into DEA, addressing both drug and gun crimes. This transition will be initiated in FY 2026 and achieve efficiencies in resources and case deconfliction," the section reads.

In layman’s terms, this portion of the bill says the ATF would be housed under the DEA’s banner. Though this would consolidate these two law enforcement agencies -- who frequently overlap when it comes to federal gun charges and drug trafficking -- Second Amendment activists say the move would be detrimental to gun owners.

"Merging is NOT abolishing, it's a DANGEROUS Trojan Horse,” Gun Owners of America posted to social media after the merger was discovered in the 1,224-page budget.

The DEA has frequently come under fire for government overreach and has notoriously suffered a less-than-stellar public image.

The merger was first floated in March, taking officials in both agencies by surprise, sources said. The addition into the Fiscal Budget, though, is the first serious step in implementation. Sources told Reuters that a meeting with DEA and ATF officials confirmed that the merger could come as soon as October 2025.

Sources say a merger this size would mark the biggest upheaval to the Justice Department since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

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