This is how you government
A combination of FBI incompetence, ATF incompetence and state level incompetence lead to people getting guns who should be denied based on background checks:
Shortcomings at federal and state agencies allow sales of firearms to people prohibited from buying them, a Justice Department inspector general probe found.
The issue became the subject of investigation after the FBI said the alleged shooter charged in the 2015 mass shooting at a South Carolina church should not have been able to buy a firearm. The FBI failed to complete the background check in the three days required by law, allowing the alleged shooter to buy the gun.
While the FBI runs background checks, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives is responsible for retrieving guns from buyers who werent legally permitted to purchase them.
But for the past 15 years, the FBI and ATF have disagreed over what is a fugitive from justice, which would disqualify a prospective buyer from legally obtaining a firearm, the inspector general report said. There were nearly 50,000 such purchases between 1999 and 2015 that the FBI sought to deny, but that the ATF didnt agree required the agency to try to retrieve the gun.
So, ATF isn’t going to get guns that the FBI says they should. And then I read this line:
Despite the Obama administrations push to more tightly enforce crimes associated with illegal gun sales, the federal prosecutors are doing fewer prosecutions of people who obtain firearms as a result of lapses in the gun background check system, the inspector general report said.
So, they’re just not doing their job. And more gun laws will help? Give them more background check violations to not investigate?
September 29th, 2016 at 6:25 pm
The “failure” of a bureaucracy is only proof that more funding, “tools” and “resources” are needed. Thus it is counterproductive to efficiently fulfill one’s charter.
The side benefit of this “failure” is that we on the supposedly pro gun side will then call for more efficient violation of a constitutionally enumerated right. We think we’re smart and all tough and stuff, for calling for “the enforcement of existing (anti-constitutional) laws” as the alternative to making new anti-constitutional laws.
It’s a win win situation– They get more support and we get worked up into a frenzy of self defeat, so what’s your problem?
September 30th, 2016 at 9:09 am
The purpose of overly broad, vague laws is to allow selective prosecution, as well as selective non-prosecution.
And if you were the ATF, who would you rather enforce yourself upon: an old white guy with no criminal record who sells 6 of his 20 rifles at a gun show without an FFL, or a known violent felon who got a gun with a failed background check?
September 30th, 2016 at 10:00 am
@mikee, the administration would rather go after “the old white guy” who simply privately transferred his 6 guns to family and friends.
October 1st, 2016 at 2:34 pm
If only they were following the Constitution, their workload would be low enough to go out and deal with actual criminals.
October 2nd, 2016 at 8:27 am
@Austrian Anarchy, “if only”, indeed. IF the Constitution was being followed, there would be no ATF since the Federal Government has NO delegated powers for its existence.
October 2nd, 2016 at 10:14 am
The Department of Education has been doing this for decades. The government run schools are failing. So we throw more money and government employees at the problem. When this fails, we repeat the cycle. We currently spend more per student than anyone in the world for worse and worse performance. By this measure, maybe we should spend more money on the ATF.
October 2nd, 2016 at 11:29 am
It is so hard for agencies that have turned into “for profits” to actually conduct their initial responsibilities they were assigned. Today it is rampant in government, and there is no accountability as the majority of the public is completely ignorant of what government has become.
The problem as others have mentioned is the ignoring of article 1 section 8 of the Constitution where as the government today is all powerful, nothing close to resembling what the founding fathers had in mind, from the top politicos to the court rooms, the for profit system is Communism light for small businesses dealing with massive regulation, to the government completely taking over businesses, down to the citizens whose rights are constantly in the cross hairs of bureaucrats that owe no duties to the Constitution whatsoever. As they chastise the Venezuelan model, They are running a system that mimics it perfectly.
October 2nd, 2016 at 2:31 pm
Firearms offenses are among the first charges dropped in plea bargains. Overloaded courts are happy to bargain them away in return for guilty pleas on other charges to clear the dockets.
MC