Courtesy of Yale Political Union

Steve Dettelbach, who served as the former director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under President Joe Biden from 2022 to 2025, preached his affirmative stance on the resolution “Resolved: Get Tough on Guns and on Crime” to the Yale Political Union on Tuesday evening.

Dettelbach, who also served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio and was the first Senate-confirmed director of ATF in over seven years, was introduced by YPU President Leo Greenberg ’26 to an audience of around 80 students.

“In the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Chevron-deference and new executive orders to protect gun possession, Mr. Dettelbach’s work and thinking about guns and violent crime in the U.S. is more relevant than ever,” said Greenberg in his introductory address.

Dettelbach began the debate by explaining the role of the ATF, calling it “the violent crime agency of the federal government.” He stated that ATF, while a small agency employing only 5,000 to 6,000 individuals, is highly collaborative with state and local law enforcement in tackling its mission of fighting against violent crime.

Dettelbach emphasized that the ATF serves two core functions, serving both as an enforcement agency with “2,500 badge-carrying, gun-carrying federal agents” and as a regulatory agency, chiefly for the explosives and firearms industry.

“To me, the test of whether we should adopt any particular measure as a government, as a society, is a twofold test, at least from ATF’s standpoint of ‘First, is it legal? Is it allowed? And second, will it save lives?’,” said Dettelbach. “Because if it’s legal and it will save lives, we should be seriously considering it.”

Reflecting on the United States’ current crisis of violent crime, Dettelbach described the scale of the country’s acute crime problem in comparison to other wealthy nations, citing data from a 2021 study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

The 2021 study found that the United States, among other nations of over 10 million people that were classified as “wealthy,” ranked first in the world for firearm homicide rates.

The US rate of firearms-related homicides per 100,000 is three times greater than the second-highest country, according to Dettelbach.

“[We are] 45 times more violent than Spain. We’re 450 times more than the United Kingdom, [and] that’s not a place where you want to be,” he said.

Dettelbach then explained that following the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States suffered “a very significant spike in firearms violence and violent crime.” In a somber moment, Dettelbach added that on May 24, 2022 — the day before his confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate — 19 children and two teachers were “massacred in Uvalde, Texas.”

Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School shooting, perpetrated by a teenage gunman with a legally purchased AR-15, was the deadliest shooting ever at a Texas public school. 

Dettelbach urged the audience that the fight against violent crime is not hopeless nor partisan, and expressed his belief that further progress can be made beyond what the country has already done.

“We drove violent crime down from that spike to its lowest point in 50 years because of the concerted effort of all Americans, of law enforcement, of ATF, of our partners,” said Dettelbach, attributing the success to a two-pronged strategy. 

Dettelbach explained that the two prongs of putting “trigger-pullers” behind bars and making it legally tougher for those individuals “to so easily arm themselves with such lethal weaponry” are crucial.

He elaborated that by catching and identifying people who are inclined to pull the trigger against other human beings, the government would not only be punishing prior acts of violence but also “highly likely to prevent future shootings.”

“There is absolutely no reason why we cannot respect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens, and at the same time drive down firearms violence in the common sense of the matter,” said Dettelbach. “This is not a hypothetical issue.”

Concluding his speech, Dettelbach emphasized how imperative it is that action takes place to eliminate the black market for firearms and for stricter laws on background checks to be enacted. He also stated that the “tens of thousands of deaths in this nation every year” as a result of gun violence are not just numbers but “brothers and sisters and friends.”

After the talk, opposing Dettelbach’s speech, John Byler ’28 argued that guns themselves do not cause violence, but are rather “symptomatic of other root causes” that the government should take action to address.

“If we implement policies that invest in education in places of poverty, if we institute RFK Jr. policies, not only will crime decrease but citizens will be happier and healthier,” said Byler. “We must address the problem of crime with a holistic approach. Crime cannot be solved in a vacuum.”

Byler added that gun control is a “slippery slope” and can lead to citizens losing the power to legitimize a democratic government, increasing the risk of tyranny.

In agreement with Dettelbach’s affirmative stance, William Berry ’27 argued that violence is best prevented through the enforcement of gun regulations, though the enforcement of law is distinct from the punishment of criminals. 

“Being tough on guns is the best mechanism for being tough on crimes,” said Berry. “You don’t have to be tough on criminals to be tough on crime.”

Also opposing Dettelbach’s stance, David Dumontet ’28 argued that the federal government does not have the “unchecked ability” to regulate guns and that tough-on-crime policy “does surgery with sledgehammers.”

“How much of our lives are we willing to give away to bureaucratic efficiency for the hope of saving life,” said Dumontet. “And there isn’t a clear answer, but I am of the opinion that it is of the minimum.”

After the debate, the affirmative prevailed 58-4-2 on “Resolved: Get Tough on Guns and on Crime.”

The Yale Political Union is the oldest collegiate debate society in the U.S., founded in 1934.