Feedback
I reconnected with an acquantance (sic) recently and it turns out he works for the BATFE. We spoke a bit about H.R.5092, but he was not aware of the bureau’s analyisis (sic) of it. He asked what I thought.
I want to open this up and ask you all what you think of BATFE.
My dealings with them is limited but I will say that they were professional and courteous. But I shouldn’t have even had to deal with them. Anyway, give your thoughts and I’d lay off the kitten-stomping, baby-sniping stuff. Not gonna have much effect.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:45 am
I haven’t had much dealings with the ATF directly. I just recently got a C&R FFL, but that was just basically a send in the application to the ATF with a copy to the local police, get your check cashed (which the ATF always seems to do pretty quickly), and then wait for the license to arrive in the mail about a month later. I haven’t yet had to call them for anything. I haven’t been raided either 🙂
October 16th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
I don’t cotton to organizations that tell me what I can and can’t do in general. I understand the need for government oversight (which is why I identify as libertarian and not anarchist) but I would rather see that oversight in the form of consumer protection.
Making sure that firearms function as advertised? Good. Taking a firearm that was known to malfunction and using it to take away someone’s freedom? Bad. Investigating the guy who wants to be eight tons of fertilizer for a craft project? Good. Investigating the 12 year old trying to get into model rocketry? Bad.
I want to see the BATFE work on the principle that they serve the people, and they do so in a regular and standard fashion. I want to see fewer “seat of the pants” decisions, and to have a system of transparent recorded and disseminated decisions. I want to see fewer people treated like hardened criminals because they didn’t dot an I or cross a T.
And I want to see the BATFE treat the ownership and use of arms as a sacred right, as the founders certainly saw it, to be revoked and abridged only in extreme cases, rather than a privilege to be doled out in small doses depending on the whim of a civil servant.
October 16th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
The BATFE needs to spend more time on alcohol and tobacco and less time on firearms.
After all, the abuse of alcohol and the use of tobacco certainly result in a lot more deaths than the use or abuse of firearms.
October 16th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
I want to see that tax collection agency completely out of any law enforcement roll.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
I said this in far greater detail in the GLN post and I’ll summarize here:
The ATF has no legitimate law-enforcement purpose. They dont belong in the DOJ and they shouldnt be investigating or prosecuting violent crime. It is completely outside their charter. Every crime they fancy themselves useful at solving is far more effectively left in the hands of local law enforcement and the FBI.
Their proper role (if it should even exist) is the taxation of alcohol, tobacco and firearms that travel in interstate commerce. Bureaucrats + perceived identity as law enforcement personnel = trouble for honest people.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
Most or all of the BATFE personnel should be re-assigned to the Border Patrol or I.C.E. where they can do us some good.
A while back, I remember some local guy was caught with a small, crude explosive device that he had allegedly constructed. Of course, they reported he ahd some guns. The TV news showed many BATFE agents swarming all around the man’s property and house–yet when illegal aliens are apprehended by local law enforcement, we are told they don’t have nough people to take custody, hold and deport them!!
October 18th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
The BATF***Everybody is the only agency whose sole purpose to exist is the violation of the constitution and the citizen. Period.
It is organized crime. It’s agents by extension are gangsters. see above the read the Bill of Rights. Those are part of the Supreme law of the land, yet this agency is charged with violating it at orders from politicians as a requirement for employment.
I don’t care if you were hired to rob a bank, it is still illegal. Same for violating the constitution. It isn’t just doing your job. People that hire on have made a choice to make a living illegally. Immunity from prosecution doesn’t necessarily mean you were good.
October 18th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
Oh, and I would steer clear of your friend there. I have personally known people that were set up by agents that used to be high school friends. And don’t say if I do nothing wrong they can’t set me up. That is when they set you up. They don’t need to if you’re actually guilty of something.
The DEA and ATF are notorious for that tactic. Most always charge conspiracy, it is one you can’t disprove and who are courts going to believe, when your old friend says you did mention shooting (fill in the blank) and you say you didn’t?
Drop him like a hot rock.