ATF Ridiculed for Valentine’s Day Message Encouraging Americans to Snitch on Ex-Partners

People with firearms at the Washington state capitol during the 'March for Our Rights' pro-gun rally in Olympia, Washington, on April 21, 2018. (JASON REDMOND/AFP/Getty Images)

The Biden administration has chosen to use this year’s Valentine’s Day to encourage people to get revenge on former lovers by reporting their illegal gun purchases or sales to the federal government.

“Valentine’s Day can still be fun even if you broke up,” reads a message posted on the official Twitter page of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). “Do you have information about a former (or current) partner involved in illegal gun activity? Let us know, and we will make sure it’s a Valentine’s Day to remember!”

The post also includes an image showing a broken heart and the contact information for the ATF. “Got an ex who buys or sells guns illegally? We would love to meet and treat them to a Valentine’s Day surprise!” the image text reads.

The Justice Department, which is seeking to crack down on what it calls “ghost guns” and firearms made from DIY kits, shared the post.

The ATF’s Valentine’s Day message was not well received on social media, with many expressing concerns over “swatting,” a harassment tactic of reporting an non-exist emergency situation in order to get an armed law enforcement response—such as a SWAT team—against a target victim.

“Pissed by at your ex? Why not get them swatted?” one user wrote.

“You’re literally encouraging people to turn in those they likely have a grudge against, which will likely result in false reports and potential deaths,” another comment reads.

Some also pointed to the large amount of military equipment left behind when U.S. military forces were hastily withdrawn last year from Afghanistan at the order of President Joe Biden. Images circulated online showed Taliban fighters posing with M4 carbines and M16 rifles and opening crates of new firearms, drones, and night-vision goggles—a small part of the American war chest seized as trophies by the Taliban, the terrorist group that once again controls the war-torn country.

“The Biden administration just left an immeasurable amount of weapons and firepower in Afghanistan. I'd look into that,” one person wrote.

For others, the post evokes their memory of the ATF’s now-disgraced Operation Fast and Furious. As part of the sting operation, the ATF under the Obama administration intentionally released weapons to suspected middlemen in the hope that this would lead the agency to high-level gun and drug traffickers in Mexico.

The ATF agents, however, lost track of hundreds of those weapons, many of which ended up in hands of criminals, including the Mexican bandit who used an AK-47 to shoot and kill Border Patrol officer Brian Terry in 2010 during a gunfight in Arizona.