Posted on 07/11/2014 6:38:31 AM PDT by rellimpank
It's time to dissolve the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In fact, it should have been dissolved years ago. It has disparate missions that overlap with other agencies' responsibilities. It has been micromanaged by Congress and mismanaged by its leaders. It serves no useful purpose that can't be met by other government bodies. It needs to go.
U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) is working on a bill that would do just that, and we hope this effort is successful.
"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."
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's recent "Backfire" Watchdog Reports investigation uncovered a series of botched undercover storefront stings across the nation. The investigation found that the agency used people with mental disabilities to promote operations and then arrested them; opened storefronts near schools and churches, boosting their arrest numbers and penalties; attracted juveniles with free video games and alcohol; paid inflated prices for guns, prompting people to buy new guns and quickly sell them to agents for a profit; allowed armed felons to leave their fake stores; and openly bought stolen goods, spurring burglaries in surrounding neighborhoods.
The Journal Sentinel also reported that in Milwaukee, the ATF operation was burglarized, four of the wrong people were arrested and an agent's machine gun was stolen. It has not been recovered. That investigation led to a bipartisan call in Congress for accountability.
And accountability in this case should mean eliminating the agency.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
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LOL! Yup. This is likely to happen right behind the dissolution of the irs and epa. At the very least the unfunding. Who know Sensenbrenner was a stand up comic? There’s reality, and then there’s the house and senate.
Good as a redneck convenience store, but not a federal agency...
I prefer the balkanization of law enforcement. The more you “streamline” the closer to a Police State you get.
BAD idea in the supposed name of “saving money”.
Sensenbrenner is a master of legislating unintended consequences. All this will do is give respectable cover to what the ATF does anyway. The same thugs will enforce the same policies, just while wearing plate carriers with a different and less incendiary three letters stenciled on. I say keep them out in the open as ATF so we can see them clearly.
The problem with the ATF is that the bureaucrats in it have to justify their own existence.
They add nothing of substance and only turn law-abiding gun owners into criminals for their own sick and twisted enjoyment.
I know people who sell food flavors - some of which are used to flavor alcoholic drinks. These ingredients contain no alcohol themselves.
If the product is used in an Alcoholic drink, it needs a special ATF registration number. It takes about 3 years and a boat-load of money to complete the process.
As such, if you want to buy such ingredients, you basically are limited to those companies with the size and huge regulatory staffs. Is ATF protecting American citizens? Or are they protecting favored corporations?
Just a very small example of how big government is crony-capitalist.
Since all other federal agencies have their own SWAT teams let’s get rid of the US Marshals too.
I hate those ATF jerks. When they don’t have mentally retarded people to entrap and children to gas with the fbi they send out their little thugs to inspect machine shops. They have been around half a dozen times in my city.
Sensenbrenner speaks on the ATF
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ATF should not be absorbed into any other agencies. ATF employees from the top to the bottom should be simply fired and not permitted to work in any sort of law enforcement within the borders of the USA or its possessions ever again. Actually dissolving the ATF will create a danger even as it mitigates a bad situation. All those trained storm troopers will find work somewhere, most within their own area of expertise and training. The end of the Vietnam war contributed a bit to the militarization of local police with the drawdown of Spec Forces for that reason.
Yeah, I’m sure they can handle this over at the IRS.
Good. Get rid of it and then the EPA.
The ATF should be disbanded and the enforcement personnel moved to ICE, where their tactics would be more appreciated.
what’s less funny is the possibility of their functions
being given to other FedGov agencies. David Codrea’s
War on Guns blog has a recent post on this
Yup. Say the newly formed DHS unit of FGMYGN. Federal Gimme Your Guns Now unit?
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Repeal GCA68 to start.
Time to dissolve the ATF: Jim Sensenbrenner (Lead editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sensenbrenner)
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