Posted on 01/13/2017 11:50:26 AM PST by PROCON
A bill has been proposed in U.S. House of Representatives that would eliminate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The ATF Elimination Act, which was reintroduced by Wisconsin Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner on Thursday, calls for an ATF hiring freeze and would transfer the ATF’s current responsibilities to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
According to the bill, the FBI and DEA would need to submit a plan for scaling down ATF affairs within 180 days of the bill’s enactment into law. Within one year, the FBI would have to issue a report to the General Services Administration regarding ATF property that will either need to be transferred or excessed.
In a press release Thursday, Rep. Sensenbrenner issued the following statement regarding the proposal:
Despite our country being trillions of dollars in debt, government spending continues to rise. Common sense budgeting solutions are necessary, and the ATF Elimination Act is one measure we can take to reduce spending, redundancy, and practice responsible governance. The ATF is a scandal-ridden, largely duplicative agency that has been branded by failure and lacks a clear mission. It is plagued by backlogs, funding gaps, hiring challenges, and a lack of leadership. These facts make it a logical place to begin draining the swamp and acting in the best interest of the American taxpayer.
The ATF drew heat in 2011 after the so-called Fast and Furious operation, in which the ATF willingly let Mexican drug cartels buy illegal firearms in order to track the guns and then arrest the criminals carrying them.
The operation went drastically wrong as agents lost track of the guns. Instead of leading to arrests of high-ranking cartel members, the firearms were reportedly used in numerous murders in Mexico.
The agents wont be out of work. Theyll get picked up by Homeland and all the other alphabets that survive. Still, the Dems wont vote for it. Not a one.
In the wake of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, on September 11, 2001 President George W. Bush signed into law the Homeland Security Act of 2002. In addition to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the law shifted ATF from the Department of the Treasury to the Department of Justice.
From Wiki:
The ATF was formerly part of the United States Department of the Treasury, having been formed in 1886 as the "Revenue Laboratory" within the Treasury Department's Bureau of Internal Revenue. The history of ATF can be subsequently traced to the time of the revenuers or "revenoors"[7] and the Bureau of Prohibition, which was formed as a unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in 1920. It was made an independent agency within the Treasury Department in 1927, was transferred to the Justice Department in 1930, and became, briefly, a division of the FBI in 1933.
When the Volstead Act, which established Prohibition in the United States, was repealed in December 1933, the Unit was transferred from the Department of Justice back to the Department of the Treasury where it became the Alcohol Tax Unit (ATU) of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Special Agent Eliot Ness and several members of The "Untouchables", who had worked for the Prohibition Bureau while the Volstead Act was still in force, were transferred to the ATU. In 1942, responsibility for enforcing federal firearms laws was given to the ATU.
In the early 1950s, the Bureau of Internal Revenue was renamed "Internal Revenue Service" (IRS),[8] and the ATU was given the additional responsibility of enforcing federal tobacco tax laws. At this time, the name of the ATU was changed to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division (ATTD).
In 1968, with the passage of the Gun Control Act, the agency changed its name again, this time to the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division of the IRS and first began to be referred to by the initials "ATF". In Title XI of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Congress enacted the Explosives Control Act, 18 U.S.C.A. Chapter 40, which provided for close regulation of the explosives industry and designated certain arsons and bombings as federal crimes. The Secretary of the Treasury was made responsible for administering the regulatory aspects of the new law, and was given jurisdiction over criminal violations relating to the regulatory controls. These responsibilities were delegated to the ATF division of the IRS. The Secretary and the Attorney General were given concurrent jurisdiction over arson and bombing offenses. Pub.L. 91-452, 84 Stat. 922, October 15, 1970.
In 1972 ATF was established as a separate bureau within the Treasury Department when Treasury Department Order 221, effective July 1, 1972, transferred the responsibilities of the ATF division of the IRS to the new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
There are professionals in the ATF.
The other 98% struggle with Small Man issues.
Amen!!!
It’s so good to see some change for the better. A little house cleaning like this, a little push back here, a little putting the MSM in their place there.
The Trump team are definitely a bunch of busy bodies on our side.
I can’t wait to see what’s on store for the EPA.
The actual agency, yes. But there was a progression that lead to the agency. It had several different names and missions but they evolved into the ATF and DEA. The bottom line is the people who were enforcing prohibition had to find something else to enforce.
Yessssss!
That’s what I was talking g about. I was about to post a link and saw Elderberry already had.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936
Regarding firearms, note that the Founding States expressly delegated the power to regulate firearms for military purposes only. This is evidenced by Clause 16 of Section 8.
Clause 16: To provide for organizing, arming [emphasis added], and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
In fact, it seems that federal regulation of non-military use firearms got started during the FDR Administration, FDR and the Congress at the time infamous for making laws base on powers that the states have never expressly constitutionally delegated to the feds.
Franklin Roosevelt: The Father of Gun Control
Trump and Sessions need to inventory all federal laws and take the laws that the corrupt, post-17th Amendment ratification Congress and constitutionally undefined federal regulatory agencies made without having the express constitutional authority to do so out of the books imo.
Remember in November ’18 !
Since Trump entered the ’16 presidential race too late for patriots to make sure that there were state sovereignty-respecting candidates on the primary ballots, patriots need make sure that such candidates are on the ’18 primary ballots so that they can be elected to support Trump in draining the unconstitutionally big federal government swamp.
Such a Congress will also be able to finish draining the swamp with respect to getting the remaining state sovereignty-ignoring, activist justices off of the bench.
Noting that the primaries start in Iowa and New Hampshire in February ‘18, patriots need to challenge candidates for federal office in the following way.
Patriots need to qualify candidates by asking them why the Founding States made the Constitution’s Section 8 of Article I; to limit (cripple) the federal government’s powers.
Patriots also need to find candidates that are knowledgeable of the Supreme Court's clarifications of the federal government’s limited powers listed below.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphasis added].” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
I will be shocked if they really abolish any agency. Shocked in a good way, but when push comes to shove, I can’t believe they will really pull the trigger.
Don’t abolish it, make it into a retail outlet.
Not only does it need to be shut down, but every single BATFag needs to be fired, but not before placing a brand on their forehead that says “I hate the Constitution” on their foreheads so everyone will know to shun them for all eternity.
Why is that a problem? They should be prohibited from wearing a badge of any kind for life anyway. Just fire them. Personally, I think they are such an affront to liberty that every single person who works for the BATF in any capacity should get the chair. They are useless producers of carbon dioxide.
Way to go William!
It’d be nice to get rid of the incompetent jackwagons at ATF...
...BUUUUUUUUUUUT...
...I’d much rather that the laws which give the buffons the authority to deprive us of our rights be repealed.
So, for instance, REPEAL the 1934 NFA.
REPEAL the 1968 Gun Control Act.
REPEAL the ‘86 ban on new full autos.
THAT would be progress!
While you’re at it, how about an inventory of the weapons/ammunition the federal agencies have acquired during the Obama Administration.
Waco.
I’m loving it.
I clicked on this thread just to look for that image. Thanks!
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