Dettelbach’s Nomination Widely Supported By Law Enforcement Groups
WASHINGTON –– Today, Everytown for Gun Safety and its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, released the following statements after the Senate Judiciary Committee acted on Steve Dettelbach’s nomination to become Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
“After seven long and deadly years without a Senate-confirmed ATF Director, it’s past time for the Senate to do its job and fill this vacancy,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “The Senate should heed the voices of law enforcement, former ATF directors, and community leaders across the country and throw its full support behind Steve Dettelbach.”
“A grassroots army of Americans are rising up and demanding action from Senators to address our gun violence epidemic, but for too long the agency at the center of so much of this work has been without Senate-confirmed leadership,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “It’s past time for the Senate to confirm an ATF Director, and Steve Dettelbach is the right person for the job. We urge the Senate to bring his nomination to the floor and confirm him as quickly as possible.”
Dettelbach was nominated by President Biden in April. Dettelbach has decades of experience as a prosecutor, including serving as the Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio and in the Department of Justice. He has worked with federal, state, and local law enforcement, and county prosecutors, to put away domestic extremists and violent criminals, including murderers, child predators, and more than 40 human traffickers.
A broad coalition of law enforcement and local leaders have come out in support of Dettelbach’s nomination, including the Major County Sheriffs of America, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Women in Federal Law Enforcement Foundation, a coalition of over 100 mayors, the team of prosecutors who put the Oklahoma City bombers behind bars, eight former directors and acting directors of the ATF, including the last Senate-confirmed Director of the agency, and leaders of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, which suffered a deadly anti-semitic shooting in 2018.
