New ATF Head Wants Computerized Database of All Gun Purchases

Deputy Director Thomas Brandon (shown on right), head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) appeared on CBS’s Sunday Morning television show, complaining that his agency is “a small agency with a big job” and that he really needs more agents and more money to do that job.

What he would really like, however, is a computerized database of all gun purchases made by every buyer and seller in the country:

There’s a lot of things that don’t make sense.… Would [having such a database at the ATF] be efficient and effective? Absolutely. Would the taxpayers benefit with [improved] public safety? Absolutely. Are we allowed to do it? No.

Brandon took over the agency in April 2015 after Todd Jones bailed out following the agency’s failed attempt to ban ammunition for the popular AR-15 rifle. Jones had taken over the agency after Kenneth Melson bailed out in 2011 following the implosion of the ATF’s Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal.

18 That’s an illegal registration scheme and the BATF already is in violation of the law by not having destroyed all the 4473s they’ve collected from businesses changing systems, closing or going under.

Ding! Ding!! Ding!!! Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

1/08/2016 - Obama Wants to Hire Hundreds More FBI, ATF Staff
The Obama administration wants to hire hundreds more federal law enforcement personnel to expedite mandatory background checks on gun buyers, as part of several new executive actions aiming at reducing gun violence.

The FBI will hire more than 230 extra analysts and other staff for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System – the 17-year-old database created to prevent gun sales to those prohibited from obtaining firearms – to help provide round-the-clock processing of background checks and faster notice to local authorities about potential unlawful gun purchases. According to information on the FBI’s website, NICS currently is “customarily available 17 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays (except Christmas).”

The White House said the new hiring “will begin immediately and increase the existing workforce by 50 percent,” according to a fact sheet on the executive actions. “This will reduce the strain on the NICS system and improve its ability to identify dangerous people who are prohibited from buying a gun before the transfer of a firearm is completed.”

Carol Cratty, an FBI spokeswoman, said by email that the FBI will hire the additional NICS personnel over the next 2 years. NICS staff work at the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Branch, based in Clarksburg, WV.

Cratty said the workload of NICS has increased steadily since the creation of the database in 1998 “with December 2015 being the highest month on record for background checks.” In addition to more staff, the agency is overhauling the system’s technology to modernize it to handle expedited processing. The FBI also is working with “federal, state, local and tribal partners to gather more complete criminal and mental health records,” Cratty said.

The White House also wants to hire 200 new investigators and agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (also part of Justice) to help enforce gun laws, including the measures Obama announced. One of the major “new actions” requires background checks and a license for gun sellers, regardless of location. The move is designed to clarify the current language on the books to close the so-called loophole associated with sales at guns shows and online.

With a corrupt DOJ, I would not take odds against an illegal and secret federal database of BATFE Form 4473's already in existence.

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