Really:

The ACLU filed the case on April 18, 2006, on behalf of Karen J. Kilpatrick, who claimed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) violated her Free Speech rights.

Kilpatrick was driving her blue van in Pensacola on April 19, 2004, with the slogans “Remember the Children of Waco” and “Boo ATF” written on some of the windows when she was pulled over by police for questioning by the ATF.

The ACLU argues in the lawsuit that her First Amendment Rights to Free Speech and her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure were violated when officers detained her for an hour, searched her car without consent, and ordered her to remove the writing on the side of her van.

“The ATF’s actions were unconstitutional and there was no legal justification to stop and question Ms. Kilpatrick. We believe that the ATF was trying to silence Ms. Kilpatrick and the 911 call substantiates this position,” said Bert Oram, ACLU cooperating counsel.

Via Joe, who is optimistic regarding potential future trends.

Update: Get the sticker here.

And for those just joining us, more on the ATF’s stellar record of performance can be found here.

ATF decided to join the 20th century. I guess they realized this whole electronic records thing wasn’t just a fad.

Seen at David’s:

Sullivan added that most licensed gun dealers are law-abiding and that, to be fair, ATF needs to apply the rules more uniformly across the country.

Well, you guys do in fact uniformly ignore the courts. And you uniformly prefer to go after clerical errors instead of real gun crime. Consistently bad is still consistent.

This was emailed to me by reader JKB:

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I’ve been taking a look at this Syracuse University Clearinghouse on federal law enforcement data (http://trac.syr.edu/). I got to the clearinghouse via this post at instapundit. The ATF data is interesting. Seems the ATF enforcement is more active in rural areas than in the big cities. I looked up Philadelphia out of curiosity since it doesn’t appear on the list of low activity. I found some interesting details which I lay out below; #1 in referrals but low prosecutions, top reason for non-prosecution: No federal interest.

I hope you find this useful if you weren’t already aware of the clearinghouse. I enjoy both your blogs. Keep up the good work.

BTW, the Tennessee East (Knoxville) ATF district is an active area for ATF referrals (18th out of 90) and has a good prosecution and conviction rate with longer than average sentences.

JKB

From the summary of Regional Patterns in ATF Enforcement:

Big cities have a reputation for having more armed felons than rural areas. And the ATF, moving out of the drug and alcohol enforcement business, is now concentrating its energies on prosecuting previously convicted felons who have been discovered with weapons.

Why then, when considered in terms of the number of referrals in relation to population, are six of the nation’s “big city” districts among the least active? In FY 2002, for example, California South (San Diego), California Central (Los Angeles), Illinois North (Chicago), California North (San Francisco), Massachusetts (Boston), and the District of Columbia all fell in the bottom third of the 90 federal judicial districts in the United States in terms of this particular measure.

link

As for Philadelphia:

Seems Philadelphia was #1 for referrals for prosecutions (2004) (latest data available free online)

link

But is #2 is declinations of prosecution (2004) or 89th out of 90 in referrals actually prosecuted

link

Interestingly, in the Pennsylvania East (Philadelphia) district, the top reason for declining to prosecute for 2003 (81.5%) and 2004 (86.4%) is “Minimal federal interest or no deterrent value”. (Note-There is a separate categories for prosecuted by other authorities, insufficient evidence, etc.)

link

The US Attorney for Eastern PA lists Safe Neighborhoods on top of his initiatives

Project Safe Neighborhoods is a firearms initiative that aggressively targets violent and dangerous firearms offenders in the local court systems (Philadelphia County and the surrounding suburban counties) for prosecution in the federal system. By prosecuting these cases in the federal system, the local and federal authorities hope to take advantage of a more certain and severe sentencing scheme, the pre-trial detention of federal defendants pending trial, and the swifter disposition of these cases in federal court

link

However, he seems to not find a federal interest to prosecute 85% of the cases the ATF referred for prosecution with 86.4% being declined due to lack of federal interest or no deterrent value. I wonder if the US Attorney had prosecuted Sergeant Liczbinski’s killers for the multitude of gun charges they had prior that fateful day if there would have been a deterrent value?
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Interesting. A few notes:

So, what about enforcing the laws on the books. Why not try that first instead of clamoring with calls to do more, harder! Even though we’re not doing much with what we have, apparently.

As far as not prosecuting in the big cities, I wonder if that’s because ATF figure big cities with big PDs ought to do that on their own. It is, after all, not entirely uncommon for local PDs in small towns to generally look the other way when it comes to federal gun laws. If you don’t believe me, visit south Texas one day.

Here in Knoxville, our police are involved in Project Safe Neighborhoods. The signs are literally everywhere. I guess the prosecution rates relate to participation in that program.

I also found this bit interesting:

Are there not a fair number of armed felons in these six cities? Is it possible that these particular police departments are so proficient in the gun control business that ATF managers decided to deploy their troops in other parts of the country? Perhaps.

But the ten districts that come out on top in the listing of per capita ATF referrals raise other kinds of questions. This curious list includes Tennessee West (Memphis), Nevada (Las Vegas), Kentucky East (Lexington), Rhode Island (Providence), Louisiana Middle (Baton Rouge), Missouri West (Kansas City), Utah (Salt Lake City), Delaware (Wilmington), Oklahoma North (Tulsa) and North Dakota (Fargo).

So, no sign they’re out in South Texas either. Of course, that explains why drugs come in and guns go out.

More info here.

Interesting stuff, nonetheless.

Update: Ouch:

So if the feds aren’t using the laws to go after actual violent criminals, but are using the law to go after people like Wayne Fincher, David Olafson, and various other folks who are no threat to polite society, what use are they really in terms of public safety? What is the “federal interest” in sending hobbyists to federal prison, but not violent felons?

More ATF stuff here.

You’ll recall ATF’s Always Think Forfeiture brouhaha. Well, thanks to their boneheaded ass-hattery, comes a bill by Congressman Bill Sali:

Sali said he will pursue legislation to prevent the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from restarting the marketing program.

These guys continue their record of stellar performance!

For the second time that I can recall this year, ATF has gone after real gun crime and not people who forget to dot i’s and cross t’s or forget some paperwork thing.

Here’s the first one.

Caught lying!

More stellar performance!

Says David Hardy:

Word is circulating that a number of ATF supervisors, from field up to high HQ levels, Assistant Directors and such, are being effectively suspended (effectively, but without using that term) while higher powers look into their competence and allegations of abuse and/or fraud. The Inspector General is said to be taking a role, and some of those involved in matters like Red’s Trading Post are under the microscope.

I hope so. And it’s about time. The ATF continues its stellar performance. Past episodes include:

OMB cracks down on ATF’s letter rulings (you know, we mean it this week but next week maybe not)

ATF raids the wrong house

ATF agents peddling anti-gun propaganda

Always think forfeiture

Retaliation against whistleblowers.

Ignoring congressional recommendations.

Trouble with their database and lying about it.

Criticized by congress for going after clerical errors instead of, you know, real gun crime.

Unethical and illegal actions from field managers.

Lying in court and getting slapped for it.

Bullying bloggers

Lying (or time-traveling) to make a case that one of their auditees is harassing them.

A circuit court smacks them down for their ruling on model rockets;

An agent testified under oath that the NFRTR (the NFA weapons database) was corrupt;

Having budget issues due to mismanagement;

Being investigated for breaking he law at Virginia gun shows.

And they’ve had funds cut for some of their rather, err, dubious programs.

The ATF Director has resigned over excessive and lavish spending.

The now former head of the ATF ordered staff to do his nephew’s homework.

And employees are coming forward with allegations of mismanagement.

And getting smacked down for disregarding the law.

Looks like it. And the blog is gone.

Oh, yeah, we spent it all on an armored personnel carrier for Dellview, North Carolina.

The WaPo:

Violent crime has increased in some cities in recent years in part because local police are too cash-strapped to fight it, the ATF chief said Monday.

The comments by Michael J. Sullivan, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, echo pleas by mayors across the country for more federal dollars to combat crime.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Sullivan called battling violent crime the No. 1 priority of ATF and said the agency is trying to help cities with federal task forces and technology.

And that is why ATF is targeting gun dealers who make clerical mistakes on onerous government forms; shutting down dealers who acted in good faith on ATF’s written opinion that products were lawful; and prosecuting people whose firearms malfunction.

Seen at Radley’s: On a site where government agencies advertise bids for private contractors, the ATF advertises for a Leatherman Micra engraved with the words “always think forfeiture.” You know, in case any of its agents forget what’s really important.

Chris Cox of NRA has a look and a discussion of HR4900.

Red’s Trading Post’s story has made the press again. This is interesting:

The revelation of the 10-gun rule came during the first day of a scheduled two-day U.S. District Court hearing over the future of Red’s license. It offered a glimpse of how the ATF decides when and where to crack down on gun shops. That mystery has evaded Republican Idaho Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo, who each put a hold on the president’s nomination of the agency’s head pending an ATF explanation of an apparent escalation in license revocations nationwide in recent years.

So, ten crime guns traced and you’re investigated? Ten out of how many?

More of the same: ATF goes after an insignificant number of clerical errors.

That’s a quote from a guy in the video about the ATF raid on Cavalry Arms. The guy owns a business nearby. Is it bad that my first thought is that the something probably consists of not crossing Ts or dotting an I or writing N instead of No on a form?

ColtCCO:

As with Red’s, they can come by any time, and check whatever they want – time will tell if there’s any merit to the raid on Cavalry Arms. This one may be related to a past investor(no longer associated) in the company that was nabbed for fraud, Warren Mee of Ameetec, who didn’t have the best rep to begin with. Again, may be unrelated, as the news people can’t seem to figure out if the warrant is for paperwork violations(Fox), or for fraud and money laundering(ABC). May be a fishing expedition or budget justification. Maybe if they fuck up enough small manufacturers and businesses, in the name of the public safety, people will get discouraged about going into the firearm business.

Ryan: When did the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives begin to start regulating fraud and money laundering?

Nicki: From what I’m reading on the Interwebz, it may have been the handiwork of a disgruntled former employee

Joe looks at fertilizer regulation.

What media bias against guns?

Short barreled shotgun porn.

Looks like acting ATF Director Michael Sullivan is under fire again:

This is one of the Judge’s that has criticized Sullivan in the past and at one point threatened to send a US Marshall to pull Sullivan out of a Dentist chair and bring him to court. Then earlier this year filed a complaint against Sullivan’s office citing “extraordinary misconduct by the Department of Justice”.

Sullivan has time and time again been criticized for refusing to plea bargain, tying up the courts and always seeking the maximum penalty-no matter how small the crime. Sullivan’s critics say he’s rigid and uncompromising, and hasn’t shown an ability to temper punishment with compassion.

Reader Tommy emails his senators’ letters on the confirmation. More of the same. They are below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

Such sticklers for paperwork. Seems they lost 500 records, and can’t account for some machine guns. More here.

So, the ATF raids and shuts down five gun stores. They must be breaking the law, right? Well, we don’t know:

But the ATF released few specifics about the cases and said no charges had yet been filed against the businesses or the men taken into custody.

No charges? And you shut down their businesses, detain them and confiscate their property.