On Thursday, ATF Director Robert Cekada told Breitbart News that he and his agency worked to speed up approval processes for Virginians trying to buy guns before that state’s gun ban took effect.
Breitbart News reported that a ban on AR-15s and similar semiautomatic rifles which Democrats label “assault weapons” would go into effect July 1, 2026.
The gun control bans the sale of AR-15s and similar semiautomatic rifles but allows those who owned them prior to July 1, 2026, to keep them. As a result of this caveat, sales of AR-15s and other rifles surged in the lead-up to the gun control’s effective date.
For example, on June 7, 2026, Breitbart News noted that sales of firearms, AR-15 parts, and magazines with capacity of more than 15 rounds were surging in Virginia.
That surge continued, even through the final seconds before the Democrat-sponsored “assault weapons” ban took effect. And in the waning pre-ban days, Director Cekada shifted ATF resources in an effort to ensure would-be law-abiding gun owners could get their purchases quickly approved so they could take home their guns before the state-level prohibitions hit.
Cekada told Breitbart News, “This was an issue that was brought upon law-abiding gun owners in the state of Virginia. It didn’t involve ATF but ATF was in a position to at least make that these folks, if they chose to do so, would have the opportunity to submit their forms and get guns in compliance with the law prior to the July first deadline.”
He noted that taking care of Virginians required “removing some resources from handling forms from the rest of the United States,” but Cekada indicated that he and his leadership team believed “that was the right thing to do.”
Cekada explained that there are people within the ATF assigned to cover certain regions of the country to approve forms submitted on behalf of would-be gun buyers. In order to “make sure that the agency could take on the task that Virginians needed” he shifted ATF personnel assigned to other regions and focused them on Virginia to “expedite things.”
He made clear that he “wants to be able to do these pivots” when law-abiding gun owners are facing state-level restrictions, and that he wants the ATF to be a helpmate to the law-abiding gun owner.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
