The evil fertilizer loophole
The ATF is getting poked with a stick because it fails to conduct adequate background checks on people who purchase explosives. What government does:
People with criminal records and other disqualifying factors have access to explosives because the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is failing to do adequate background checks, posing a significant risk to public safety, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog said Monday.
At least 655 people can continue to work for companies licensed to handle explosives even though they have criminal records or fall into one of six other prohibited categories, Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said. ATF continues to classify their applications as pending; until the clearance process is complete, applicants can continue to handle explosives.
It gets better:
The agency did not even request an FBI background check on an estimated 3,420 of the 38,000 people who have sought government clearance to work with explosives, Fine said.
April 5th, 2005 at 9:09 am
Funny, the Bradys aren’t complaining about this one, but they complain about a much smaller number of people who aren’t in any prohibited category who exercised their right to own a gun.