For the second time in as many weeks, the President-elect has tapped a person with a history of supporting gun-control measures to fill a senior federal law enforcement position.
Donald Trump announced over the weekend his plans to nominate Chad Chronister (R.), the current Sheriff of Florida’s Hillsborough County, to lead the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). As recently as 2019, Chronister expressed support for “enhanced mental health screening” for anyone who wants to own a gun, universal background checks, and Florida’s “red flag” law.
“We all as a society need to do more about gun safety and those who possess firearms,” Chronister said after stopping a copycat mass shooting threat in the wake of 2019’s El Paso shooting, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
While the DEA has little to do with crafting gun policy, the pick represents a new trend of announced nominees to lead key law enforcement agencies who’ve run afoul of gun-right activists. That signals other factors beyond gun policy are driving many of Trump’s cabinet appointments.
Trump announced former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R.) as his latest pick for US Attorney General late last month after his initial choice, former Florida House member Matt Gaetz (R.), withdrew himself from consideration after it became clear he could not secure Senate confirmation due to a series of scandals. Bondi’s tenure as Florida’s top law enforcement official was marked in part by her office’s role in crafting and publicly supporting a package of gun-control laws the state adopted shortly after the 2018 Parkland shooting.
“In a time of crisis, it’s about finding common ground, and that’s what Governor Scott’s done,” she said in a Fox interview of a legislative package that included a bump-stock ban, red flag law, and a measure raising the minimum age to purchase a rifle or shotgun to 21. “That’s why nothing ever gets done in Congress, in my opinion. People are so polarized to one side or the other. We just experienced a traumatic school shooting in Florida, and it’s finding common ground, something both sides can agree on.”
Of course, Trump himself voiced support for seizing guns from those suspected of being a danger to themselves or others around the time Bondi’s office was working on Florida’s version of the policy. In a post-Parkland White House meeting with lawmakers on school safety, the President-elect expressed his desire for a policy of confiscating guns from individuals deemed to be dangerous, even if it violates their due process rights.
“I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida … to go to court would have taken a long time,” Trump said at the time. “Take the guns first, go through due process second.”
While Chronister’s past support for stricter gun laws has not yet prompted a response from prominent gun-rights groups, Bondi’s nomination did.
“Pam Bondi has a mixed record on gun rights,” Gun Owners of America (GOA) posted on social media. “As Attorney General she helped pass a lot of gun control that GOA opposed. Gun Owners deserve an attorney general who will fight for the Second Amendment and against infringements!”
The Firearms Policy Coalition took that criticism a step further. In response to Bondi’s tweet announcing her meeting with Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), the group said, “Let us guess: You discussed doing Fudd shit like pushing red flag laws, 18-20 gun bans, and other things we’ll kick your ass in court for?”
However, not all of Trump’s recent law enforcement leadership picks fit the gun-control pattern. The same day he announced Chronister, he also revealed his intention to fire the current FBI Director Christopher Wray (who he previously appointed) and replace him with Kash Patel. Patel has drawn criticisms for comments where he expressed a desire to wipe out FBI leadership and use the bureau’s power to investigate and prosecute Trump’s opponents, but the former prosecutor does not appear to have a history of public statements calling for stricter gun laws.
Patel has even drawn support from GOA. He spoke at the group’s Gun Owners Advocacy and Leadership Summit in August. Though he did not talk at length about specific gun policy positions in his remarks, he did criticize current ATF Director Steve Dettelbach for being “all for a bump stock ban.” He argued, despite Trump being the one who instituted the bump stock ban before it was struck down as unlawful by the Supreme Court, that the ATF Director’s support for the ban showed he was one of the “government gangsters” Patel has railed against for years.
“They’re going to empower the agencies in government–the DEAs of the world, the ATFs of the world; the director of the ATF basically came out the other day and said he’s all for a bump stock ban. This is a political appointee in Washington, DC, who is supposed to be in charge of our–our–Constitutional right. This guy wants to take it away,” Patel said of Dettelbach. “They will put in a zillion dollars behind this machinery to wipe out our rights under the Second Amendment.”
Those views could clash with Chronister’s own, given he argued the “right’s gone way too far right for me” during the same 2019 press conference where he backed stricter gun laws.
UPDATE 12-3-2025 6:40 PM EASTERN: Chronister has withdrawn himself from consideration for director of the DEA.
“Over the past several days, as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I’ve concluded that I must respectfully withdraw from consideration,” he said in a social media post on Tuesday.
