Good point
Randall Nunn points out that the investigations into alleged lawbreaking by the ATF at VA gun shows has gone unreported in the press:
hearings are scheduled in Congress this month to examine a pattern of apparent wrongdoing by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives at a number of Richmond, Virginia area gun shows. According to reports, BATFE agents released confidential information to local police officers with which to harass lawful purchasers of firearms at these gun shows. There are even reports of confiscation of firearms from lawful owners and questioning of family members of purchasers as if criminal activity had occurred as a result of attendance and purchases. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee intends to hold oversight hearings on these incidents to determine if BATFE was out of line. Probably very few Americans have heard about this because most of the mainstream media believes that the Second Amendment is not important and that gun shows are an evil which should be stamped out. The fact that millions of law-abiding Americans attend gun shows and lawfully purchase guns and other items is of no importance once the liberal media has decided that citizens should not have the right to purchase firearms at such shows. If government uses its coercive power to chill the exercise of such civil liberties, that is acceptable to much of the mainstream media.
February 15th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
I certainly hope no one is surprised about any of this. After all, once you cut through all the rationalizations, what was ever the purpose of the BATF in the first place, other than to harrass law abiding citizens, using “revenue enhancement” as the excuse? (for those of you who are repelled by such talk; actual law breakers are the responsibility of, uh, the police. Get it? No. You don’t.)