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U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates has denied a request from the Department of Justice to delay the release of a list of Operation Fast and Furious documents being protected under President Obama's assertion of executive privilege. The list, better known as a Vaughn index, was requested through a June 2012 FOIA filing by government watchdog Judicial Watch. When DOJ didn't respond to the FOIA request in the time required by law, Judicial Watch sued in September 2012, seeking all documents DOJ and the White House are withholding from Congress under executive privilege claims. President Obama made the assertion...

Full title: Federal Court Denies DOJ Motion for Delay, Orders Release of Fast and Furious Documents List to Judicial Watch by October 22 “The government’s arguments for even more time are unconvincing.” – U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on September 23, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that by October 22, the Department of Justice (DOJ) must submit a “Vaughn index” listing Fast and Furious materials Judicial Watch sought in its June 2012 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and subsequent September 2012 FOIA lawsuit...

The gun prohibitionists are always in a tizzy about "the Internet sale of guns". Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors is making a big deal about "Internet sales" in the campaign for the Washington State universal background check initiative I-594. That initiative, if passed, would mandate universal background checks for all sales and transfers of firearms. Of course, they are being helped by their allies in the Seattle media with articles like this giving the impression that Facebook is just one big gun exchange. Here is what the Brady Campaign sent out to their true believers in their Toolkit 2014 which...

Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner has introduced legislation to eliminate the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a federal law enforcement agency with 5000 employees. If passed, the legislation would dissolve the duties of ATF to the FBI and DEA. From the legislation:

A top Republican House member on Wednesday proposed eliminating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, writing a bill that would freeze all hiring at the troubled agency and require the Justice Department to come up with a plan for transferring its duties to other agencies. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Wisconsin Republican who wrote the bill, called it both a chance to streamline government and to clean up an agency that’s been criticized from the right and the left for botched gun-running operations.

Ok, I need some help here on a topic I know absolutely nothing about: how to evaluate colleges. My oldest son is graduating high school this year and wants to pursue a career in Law Enforcement. He has an excellent GPA (3.7/4.0) and achieved a 32 on his ACT test and as a result we're getting solicitations from colleges all over the country from as far south as Tulane in Louisiana, Hofstra in New York, University of Southern California, Michigan State, Valparaiso University, Marquette and others. We've narrowed down the list of colleges we're visiting based on his desire to...

excert.. By William La Jeunesse, Laura PrabuckiPublished September 16, 2014 A federal judge on Tuesday gave another black eye to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, issuing a scathing rebuke of the agency's handling of the career and security of one of its own -- celebrated undercover agent Jay Dobyns, who infiltrated the notorious Hells Angels. After a costly six-year legal battle, Judge Francis Allegra, with the federal claims court in Washington, D.C., chastised the ATF for failing to adequately protect Dobyns and his family from the gang.

A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to provide Congress with a list of documents that are at the center of a long-running battle over a failed law enforcement program called Operation Fast and Furious. In a court proceeding Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson set an Oct. 1 deadline for producing the list to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The Justice Department says the documents should remain confidential and President Barack Obama has invoked executive privilege in an effort to protect them from public disclosure. …

To the Honorable Members of the Senate and House of Representatives: My name is Jay Dobyns. In January of this year, I retired from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after twenty-seven years of decorated service. Today is the six-year anniversary of the arson of my home. My wife and two children were inside when the fire was set. They were lucky to escape and survive, although my home and all of our belongings were destroyed by that criminal act. Leading up to that conclusive and somewhat predictable event, my family and I had already endured years and dozens...

Two weeks after Chicago's rampant gun violence shot back into the national spotlight with a bloody Fourth of July weekend, federal authorities are scheduled to announce Thursday that seven new ATF agents are being deployed to the city to try to help stem the violence. By year end, the move will boost to 52 the number of agents in the Chicago office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which traditionally has worked closely with Chicago police on tracing the flow of guns into the city and tracking guns used in crimes. In a separate action, the...

National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea noted last week that a new General Accounting Office report has found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lacks the resources to effectively investigate one of their highest stated priorities--firearms in the hands of those prohibited by federal law from having them. Specifically, the GAO report draws the conclusion that the BATFE is unable to efficiently pursue "delayed denial" investigations, in which a person ineligible to own a firearm under federal law is permitted to do so anyway, because the criminal background check did not turn up any disqualifying information in...

<p>Citing ATF’s recent operational failures and its overlap with other federal law enforcement, Sensenbrenner is preparing a bill to dissolve the agency and have existing agencies in the U.S. Justice Department take on its duties.</p> <p>“By absorbing the ATF into existing law enforcement entities, we can preserve the areas where the ATF adds value for substantially less taxpayer money,” Sensenbrenner said. “While searching for its mission, the ATF has been plagued by decades of high-profile blunders. …We cannot afford to ignore clear changes that will greatly enhance the government’s efficiency.”</p>

Federal agents recently arrested 10 men on charges that they illegally sold firearms from Sadie’s Flea Market, just south of Dothan. George L. Beck Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, confirmed federal agents recently arrested 10 people on various illegal firearms charges in connection to an investigation launched by the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Beck said the investigation started after ATF agents received information that guns were being trafficked and sold at Sadie’s Flea Market. Beck said the investigation showed the market had no criminal involvement. “They began their investigation, and they...

An FBI manhunt is ongoing for the 55-year-old Valrico man wanted on federal charges of manufacturing illegal weapons. The search for Martin Winters ranged from Plant City to Lithia on Monday. Officials say Winters, described as "extremeley dangerous" is the subject of an FBI investigation. There currently is no law enforcement presence in the area. Agents say Winters was illegally obtaining assault rifles and building pipe bombs. Federal agents dressed in camouflage gear and holding rifles kept their eyes on an area of woods off Lithia Pinecrest Road Monday evening. According to authorities, Winters was approached by authorities while in...

The Chicago Police Department, working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and FBI, has opened the Crime Gun Intelligence Center to crackdown on illegal guns from what they call “three-percenters.” A number of agencies including Chicago PD, the Department of Justice, the FBI, the ATF, and other regional partners, will operate the new joint task force from within the ATF’s Chicago Field Division. The target of this Crime Gun Intelligence Center: a group the ATF is referring to as “three-percenters.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is re-establishing a law enforcement group to fight those it designates as domestic terrorists, with an announcement expected on Tuesday, Department of Justice officials said. Following hate-motivated shootings such as the one at a Jewish Community Center in Kansas City, Missouri in April, federal prosecutors have pressed the need to coordinate intelligence of such criminals on a national level, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The group will coordinate cases that involve Americans who may be spurred to violence for political or prejudicial reasons.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson was openly irritated both with Attorney General Eric Holder and with the U.S. House of Representatives over whether executive privilege allows Holder to withhold documents on Operation Fast and Furious. But she also signaled she would rule against Holder in part, making it likely that Congress—and the public—could learn the truth about a gun-running scandal that ended with a murdered federal agent. Berman began today’s hearing in Washington, D.C.’s federal district court with an opening statement about this case “concerning the suspected illegal flow of firearms from the United States to Mexican drug cartels.”...

motorist who allegedly brandished a gun at another driver. Turns out the driver who displayed the handgun was an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, a State Patrol report said. The incident began about 6:40 a.m. on eastbound I-694 in Brooklyn Park, where a motorist called police to report that another driver was displaying a gun. The motorist followed the gun-toting driver east to I-94, and then south on I-94 into Minneapolis. Police caught up to that driver on I-94 at Olson Hwy. and blocked two of the southbound lanes for a short time while making an...

A little noticed and virtually unreported April 15 notice posted in the Federal Register suggests the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives intends expanding the multiple rifle sale requirement currently imposed on four border states (Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas) to all states. Titled “Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed eCollection eComments Requested; Report of Multiple Sale or Other Disposition of Certain Rifles,” and assigned OMB Number 1140–0100, the 60-day notice abstract declares “The purpose of this information collection is to require Federal Firearms Licensees to report multiple sales or other dispositions whenever the licensee sells or otherwise disposes...

13 assault rifles stolen from Chicago rail yard Posted: May 09, 2014 4:16 PM CST Updated: May 10, 2014 3:09 AM CST CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) - Authorities are investigating the theft of 13 semi-automatic assault rifles from a freight train container at a South Side rail yard, the Sun-Times is reporting. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was notified about the theft of Smith & Wesson AR-15 Sport rifles in the early morning hours of May 4th, said ATF Special Agent Thomas Ahern on Friday. Thieves had broken into a freight train car operated by Norfolk...