Posted on 09/10/2009 5:27:00 AM PDT by marktwain
On Monday, we asked if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could be reformed, citing companion bills in the Senate and House backed by the National Rifle Association that promise to roll back certain restrictions and moderate penalties for minor violations.
Yesterday, we examined a campaign created by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Their bottom line: "Boot the BATFE."
No doubt many will consider this an unrealistic goal, and deem the likelihood of generating enough support to make it happen remote without revolutionary changes from the way government exerts control now. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be a goal. Besides, at this point, the NRA-backed bills have only attracted 174 cosponsors in the House and 12 in the Senate. Some might tell us passage of such legislation in this administration is also an impossible dream. And those efforts would still leave us under the thumb of an agency with a history of heavy-handed corruption and incompetence.
So what can we do--right now--that has a reasonable chance of making headway? Fortunately, there is something--and it comes from what many will consider two unlikely sources.
The first is CleanUpATF.org, a group of ATF employees who formed:
a non-profit organization dedicated to returning integrity, accountability and decency to the management of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE or "ATF").
Why?
In recent years, ATF management has become widely and officially known for corruption, self-service, and at times, overt incompetence...In the last two years alone, there have been nearly 400 employee complaints. In an organization with only about 5,000 employees...Recently publicized cases have involved malicious and carefully orchestrated management campaigns to smear, discredit, and professionally destroy agents who have repeatedly risked their lives for ATF and the public, solely in reprisal for the filing of legitimate complaints...The Bureau's leadership has also miserably failed or even deliberately refused to meet its responsibility to protect highly decorated undercover agents from documented threats...
Their conclusion?
All of these factors substantially degrade BATFE's ability to accomplish its authorized missions, and constitute an inexcusable misuse of taxpayer resources.
So what am I suggesting? Sympathy for government workers who complain that because of this, "they have little time to actually enforce the nation's firearms and other laws"?
Not at all. And while there is a suggestion to exploit this to our advantage, it's not mine. It's Mike Vanderboegh's.
I'll tell you about it tomorrow. Heads Up: I'll be doing a post unrelated to this ATF series later today--watch for it. I happen to think it's big and breaking news that could help shake the Senate to its core, which means this will probably be the only place you'll hear of it.
‘Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Their bottom line: “Boot the BATFE.”’
For my $$$ I’ll go w/ the JPFO. That’s nice the ATF has agents that aren’t corrupt but who would have known. The ATF needs to be disbanded never to return in any form. The fed govt also needs to formally apologize to America for creating it in the first place. I’d also like to see those guilty be dumped in prison. End of story.
Lordy Lordy...if this gets legs there will be blood rolling. This has been an open ‘secret’ for at least 20 years.
If you only post an excerpt from the article, people will automatically go to the site. ;)
Obviously you’ve missed the people who proudly comment on the excerpts without reading the whole article. ;-)
The ATF’s problems are like any govt agency you can name. Only the bootlickers and @sskissers get promoted. The highest levels of management of any govt agency are filled with criminal personalities. Liars, backstabbers... corrupt hateful and evil. Eventually bureaucracy will destroy any nation.
Except the JPFO is an educational group according to their tax status. They are not a voice in Washington as a lobbying group. The only gun groups that do anything or get anything accomplished are the Second Amendment Foundation and the National Rifle Association.
Not sure what your pint is. The article was a comparison between the JPFO and ‘unhappy’ ATF employees. As I said my $$$ is on the JPFO not a bunch of unhappy govt employees of suspect background.
I don't personally care if every single clerk, jerk, administrator, and agent gets their **** scattered to the four winds.
They should be immediately disbanded, their upper Management sentenced to life terms in prison on general principle, and their 'agents' branded as Felons who can never vote or touch a firearm for the rest of their miserable lives.
But that's just me.
nah, its not just you...8^}...
We'll start with that flaming @$$hole, John McGaw, former head of BATF(E). What G-d d@mn lying POS that man is.
It’s not just you.
The ATF should be three separate aisles at the local supermarket.
What I want to know is how the heck the commie marxist statist rats got all the way into the nose-bleeding top of every stinkin’ gubmint bureau and every last place of power in this entire blessed country?
If only we could lie and bribe and cheat our way in life like they do, whether the people want it or not. At least we’d be benevolent dictators instead of a gaggle of anti-American, anti-Constitution pigs.
[stops before too much steam exits ears]
Tyranny is always more organized than freedom, and it is the nature of politics that the last people you'd want near the halls of power are most greatly attracted to it.
Nope! Not just you.
You've got a lot of company.
Believe me.
No worries.
I eat up all the news I can!
Thanks!
: )
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