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Report calls for elimination of ATF
Milwaukee J-S ^ | 19 may 2015 | John Diedrich

Posted on 05/19/2015 4:59:27 AM PDT by rellimpank

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, charged with enforcing the nation's gun laws and regulating the firearms industry, has been so hobbled by high-profile operational failures, internal dysfunction and external limits on its authority that the agency should be eliminated and merged into the FBI, a new report concludes.

The report, by the left-leaning Center for American Progress, comes in the wake of a bill by U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that seeks to dissolve the agency and move its law enforcement and gun industry regulatory functions into the FBI and other agencies.

The bill and the report are the latest in a series of efforts, from both sides of the political spectrum and even by veterans of the ATF, to reform or eliminate the agency. In July, a Government Accountability Office report on the ATF described an agency trying to redefine itself while struggling with high personnel turnover and internal problems.

The think tank's 182-page report, to be made public Tuesday, traces the agency from its origins as a tax collection agency to the present, as it again finds itself with no director and beset by problems. A copy of the report was obtained earlier by the Journal Sentinel.

(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: atf; banglist; rkba
--from the article--The report, by the left-leaning Center for American Progress, comes in the wake of a bill by U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that seeks to dissolve the agency and move its law enforcement and gun industry regulatory functions into the FBI and other agencies.--

--and it's what you would expect--

1 posted on 05/19/2015 4:59:27 AM PDT by rellimpank
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To: afraidfortherepublic

-ping-


2 posted on 05/19/2015 4:59:56 AM PDT by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the media or government says about firearms or explosives--)
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To: rellimpank

The only firearms regulation we need is already in the constitution in the form of 2nd ammendment.


3 posted on 05/19/2015 5:03:31 AM PDT by exnavy (the feral gubmint should be prosecuted.)
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To: exnavy

I’ll uh, “2nd” that. Just turn over their duties to dhs. Oh, if we go by the constitution, they shouldn’t have much to do.


4 posted on 05/19/2015 5:07:20 AM PDT by rktman (Served in the Navy to protect the rights of those that want to take some of mine away. Odd, eh?)
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To: rellimpank

Agreed. BATFE should be disbanded. Also, most federal gun laws should be repealed. We should not need a federal stamp, $200 fee, and one year wait to shoot more quietly or to fire through a shorter barrel. Besides being unconstitutional, those restrictions are silly.


5 posted on 05/19/2015 5:11:03 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: rellimpank

6 posted on 05/19/2015 5:29:14 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: rellimpank
the agency should be eliminated and merged into the FBI

No - only eliminated.

7 posted on 05/19/2015 5:39:42 AM PDT by grobdriver (Where is Wilson Blair when you need him?)
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To: rellimpank

There should be some government experts in explosives, examining the remains of bombs that have gone off and other forensic and technical details but the FBI could do this task. Not sure what the ATF does with the A and the T but that doesn’t seem to justify their own agency. I know there is a large smuggling business taking cigarettes from low tax states to high tax states, but again this is something the FBI can do.


8 posted on 05/19/2015 5:41:56 AM PDT by ops33 (Senior Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired))
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To: rellimpank

We were told by a friend of ours that the FBI wants no part of the BATF because the Bureau would have to absorb all of the clowns who work there.


9 posted on 05/19/2015 5:48:36 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: rellimpank

WACO should have spelled “The End” to an agency only looking for work at the expense of law abiding citizens.


10 posted on 05/19/2015 5:49:31 AM PDT by wita
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To: ops33

Just before Ruby Ridge it was publicly suggested the agency be eliminated. I’ve wondered if there was a connection.


11 posted on 05/19/2015 5:51:35 AM PDT by exnavy (the feral gubmint should be prosecuted.)
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To: rellimpank
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, charged with enforcing the nation's gun laws and regulating the firearms industry, has been so hobbled by high-profile operational failures, internal dysfunction and external limits on its authority that the agency should be eliminated and merged into the FBI, a new report concludes.

BS!

The reason--the only reason--the BATF had anything to do with firearms was because a "tax" was imposed on the transfer of certain types of arms by the National Firearms Act of 1934. Before that, they were a revenue enforcement agency tasked with making sure taxes were collected on booze and tobacco.

The "F" part shouldn't be there in the first place (the "taxed" arms are the sort a Militia would want, and precisely the sort of arms the Founders envisioned as being protected by the Second Amendment--whether for personal or militia use).

The "E" was added to entrench and legitimize the "F".

Unfetter the Second Amendment, and stop infringing the Right, and they go back to being tax collectors.

12 posted on 05/19/2015 5:52:04 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: grobdriver

-—exactly what I told the J-S—


13 posted on 05/19/2015 6:32:52 AM PDT by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the media or government says about firearms or explosives--)
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: rellimpank; onyx; Hunton Peck; Diana in Wisconsin; P from Sheb; Shady; DonkeyBonker; ...

New report calls for dissolving the ATF.

FReep mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.


15 posted on 05/19/2015 6:42:25 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic
B T T T ! ! ! ©

16 posted on 05/19/2015 6:58:55 AM PDT by onyx (PLEASE SUPPORT FR. Donate Monthly or Join Club 300! God bless you all.)
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To: rellimpank

In realistic terms, looking for an optimal outcome, the most important thing to do is first, to parse the agency so that its different areas of authority have different outcomes.

1) Alcohol. Clearly there is no need for the federal regulation of ethanol, though “pure food and drug” guidelines should be given to the states so that *they* can assure that retail alcohol is potable and not poisonous. Testing alcohol for quality should be the responsibility of those states in which it is sold. No more federal alcohol taxes, but the states can tax as they see fit. The feds would still have a say for international alcohol trade.

2) Tobacco. A similar regime, with no need for federal involvement, beyond inspection of foreign tobacco entering the US.

3) Firearms and explosives, including chemical precursors. This is the section to be turned over to the FBI, as it is far beyond the second amendment, which should be isolated in its own area, away from things like chemical weapons, rockets and missiles, artillery and mortars, incendiary weapons, and even overlaps to some degree with biological and radiological devices.


17 posted on 05/19/2015 8:08:27 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: riverdawg

“We were told by a friend of ours that the FBI wants no part of the BATF because the Bureau would have to absorb all of the clowns who work there.”

The way the FBI operates today, that’s kinda like the pot calling the kettle black! “Clowns to the left of me, clowns to the right, here I am stuck in the middle.”
But you make an important point nonetheless. No one ever gets fired from a government job. In the Government, jobs exist mainly for those who are in them. Whatever they do do (if they do anything of value), is secondary to their employment and benefits.


18 posted on 05/19/2015 8:30:11 AM PDT by vette6387
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To: vette6387
“No one ever gets fired from a government job”

When I worked briefly for the Federal government in the 1970s (mea culpa), the work previously performed by a middle-age coworker of mine was taken over by another part of the agency. Instead of finding some other tasks for him to do, the division head put him in a small private office with a door, and assigned him no work. I was later told that this arrangement lasted for five or six years until the guy had enough time-in-service to retire.

19 posted on 05/19/2015 9:04:30 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: riverdawg

No other agency wants F Troop employees they are such screw-ups for the most part. Disband, terminate and roll duties to another agency. Although at this point is there any government agency that is not suspected to be utterly corrupt to the core?


20 posted on 05/19/2015 10:50:47 AM PDT by sarge83
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