Posted on 07/19/2004 4:18:10 PM PDT by Euro-American Scum
WASHINGTON - Only about 4.5 percent of the nation's federally licensed gun dealers are checked each year to ensure they comply with firearms laws, far below the goals set by the agency that does the exams, the Justice Department (news - web sites) said Monday.
At that rate, it would take the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives 22 years to inspect all 104,000 federally licensed gun dealers, said a review by Glenn A. Fine, the Justice Department inspector general. ATF's goal is to check each dealer once every three years.
ATF Director Carl Truscott said the agency's 420 inspectors could never keep pace with that many gun dealers. Because of limited resources, he said, ATF focuses on dealers with a history of violations and on a program of random inspections.
Calling the Justice Department review "constructive criticism," Truscott said in a written response that ATF is "committed to continuing to improve its inspection procedures."
The ATF review is the first since the bureau moved in 2003 from the Treasury Department (news - web sites) to the Justice Department as part of the government reorganization that created the Homeland Security Department.
Gun dealers are supposed to be able to account for all firearms they have bought and sold and to report to the government all sales of multiple weapons as well as all thefts of firearms. The inspections are intended to ensure dealers comply with these and other rules.
ATF also checks the applications of nearly 8,000 new firearms businesses each year. The Justice Department review found ATF often relies solely on a telephone call to do that, rather than a more thorough face-to-face meeting.
The review also found ATF rarely revokes federal firearms licenses — only 54 such revocations occurred in 2002 out of some 1,800 inspections — and it often takes more than a year for the agency to successfully take away a dealer's license.
"A consistent and timely inspection process is essential to identify and respond to any dealers who are violating the law and also to reduce the availability of illegal firearms to criminals," Fine said. "Our review found significant areas in the ATF's inspection program that need improvement."
The review made nine recommendations for changes in the inspection process, development of a tracking system for license revocations and improved use of gun tracing capabilities.
ATF has accepted most of the recommendations and is already implementing several changes, detailed in a June memo from Truscott to the agency's field offices. Among other things, the memo detailed ways inspectors can detect if dealers are conducting illegal weapons trafficking.
BATF bump.
BTTT
too busy busting illegal cig sales
Yeah, the reaqson they called the review "constructive" is it saves BATFag jobs.
"Only about 4.5 percent of the nation's federally licensed gun dealers are checked each year"
Good. Does it ever occur to the gun grabbers that gun laws on the books already far exceed the governments ability to enforce them? Fortunatley for the 2nd Amendment, law enforcement, so far, concentrates on real violent crime rather than abstract possibilities imagined by agenda driven lunatics.
They might be able to inspect more dealers if they didn't spend so much time copying the 4473's. (Yellow sheet with buyer information on it which is *supposed* to stay with the dealer, and is by law not to be kept in any federal facility, except for those from former FFLs who are out of business.)
And when they do show up, they exhibit a knowledge of regulations far below that of the average dealer, and either a zeal, or secret orders, to write the dealer up for something, even if they have to make it up.
So9
Very few are checked because crooks don't get licenses! DUMB gubmint regs!
But apparantly somebody at the atf realizes what a waste of time and money this would be.
Curious, does that 104k figure include all of the C&R license holders?
ATF = Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms?
COOL! Who is bringing the chips and dips :>)
All ready on the right, All ready on the left!
Ye HAAHHHHHH! Springfield M1A 7.62
What percentage of taxpayers are audited each year? Somehow we'll survive this.
See kids, just a short regulatory hop to registration. Now, that didn't hurt a bit, did it?
if we're really talking public safety here--what percentage of restaurants are inspected regularly? It's probable, (though I don't actually have statistics, only a hunch) that more people die or become ill of food poisoning each year than are involved in gun injuries.
my paperwork was meticulously accurate and reflected the law-abiding citizens I sold to - which just went to show what a useless agency ATF is.
Good point. And also, what percentage of day care centers are inspected? Maybe they should worry about that first since it is "for the kids".
You can't possibly be talking about the ATFE here. They spent three years badgering Randy Weaver so he would saw off a couple of shotguns for an informant, and when he finally did it, they had his wife and son murdered. Waco was a show bust that went sour, so they killed as many as they could and destroyed the evidence. The ATF has dozens of cases where otherwise law-abiding gun owners are persecuted, yet it isn't rare that real criminals get away.
You don't have a clue what you're talking about.
Go look on the DOJ web-site under the Violent Crimes Initiative.
It's a program that the ATF is spearheading (the FBI is busy working counter-terrorism issues - like they are supposed to) that takes a three-time felon charged with possession of a firearm and federalizes it putting the thug away for a significant amount of fed time rather than a light hand slap by the state.
I've seen it work.
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