One thing about this election is the Republicans are introducing pro gun bills
Odds of passing are slim but there is a bill to eliminate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The agency has had its share of scandal and incompetence. And they fail ridiculously at one of their jobs which is to run your name through the NICS and process your $200 tax for NFA items.
Wouldn’t hurt my feelings to see them go.
January 16th, 2017 at 8:13 pm
Since their primary function is to limit (i.e. infringe upon) a constitutionally enumerated right, there is no room in the U.S., or any free society, for the BATFE. The Bureau was founded by Progressives, as a farcical branch of the Revenue Service, as a run around the second amendment, and also to keep the Prohibition Enforcement people employed. I would think it could be eliminated pretty easily if only a handful in Congress were truly serious about it.
The percentage of those in Congress who actually understand any of this is probably in the low single digits, so they’d have to start with a major education program for their respective branches.
January 16th, 2017 at 8:20 pm
FBI runs NICS.
January 16th, 2017 at 8:51 pm
Be careful what you wish for. A well defined enemy is more easily managed/defeated than a poorly defined one.
It’s easy to politically muck up the ATF not so much the FBI. Example: How many “permanent” directors since 2004?
Unless of course you think that the battle will ever go away.
January 16th, 2017 at 9:47 pm
My understanding of every proposal by politicians to eliminate the BAFTE are merely a means to reshuffle the exact same work that they do into other agencies, not eliminate those responsibilities or regulations altogether.
January 16th, 2017 at 10:13 pm
The shocking thing is that they were introduced after the election, not before.
January 16th, 2017 at 11:31 pm
I agree with the late Mike Vanderboegh on this one: If you are not going to shut the agency down in its entirety and repeal all the laws it is tasked to enforce, then leave it as it is. It is far easier to keep track of the illegal activities of a single agency than it is to track illegal/unconstitutional activities spread amongst a half-dozen or so TLAs. We have enough trouble tracking the other agencies now. Why increase our workload?
If you really do intend to shut down all of its functions in their entirety and completely dismantle the agency and all its supporting legislation, then you’d have something. Don’t hold your breath.
January 17th, 2017 at 2:29 am
I agree 2ABill. One thing Mike V. was absolutely right about. The FBI is has much more clout in Congress. They will violate your rights and get away with it much more easily than ATF. We don’t want those functions transferred to FBI unless the laws they enforce are seriously reformed or eliminated.
January 17th, 2017 at 10:12 am
We definitely do not want the FBI to take over ATF functions. Politically attacking ATF is easy, and so is attacking their budget. Stick ATF functions into a larger DoJ/FBI machine and it’ll be neigh impossible to do either.
But I get (and agree) with the overall sentiment: ATF sucks. I’d like to see them have much less to do with their time.
January 17th, 2017 at 12:40 pm
Agreed- keep the ATF as an easy target for us, until we start repealing laws.
I’d much rather see laws such as requiring them to restore rights and not require new fingerprints and pictures for every NFA item.
January 17th, 2017 at 7:21 pm
If you really want to push a departmental change that would blow some heads, try creating an adjunct office to the DoJ Civil Rights Division strictly to protect gun rights, then make appointments to it subject to Senate Confirmation and the members answerable to Congress. Set them up they way we do Inspector Generals and their staffs.
January 18th, 2017 at 4:25 pm
2ABill, well-said!
January 18th, 2017 at 4:48 pm
+1 on all the comments wanting to keep the inept ATF. I would only abolish them after the last law they enforce is repealed.