BATFE, Firearm Importation & Federal Firearm Law Reform
Among its duties, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) monitors firearm manufacturers, importers and dealers for compliance with record-keeping requirements; conducts traces on the commercial paths of individual firearms at the request of law enforcement agencies; interprets firearm importation law; and administers transfers of firearms regulated by the National Firearm Act of 1934.
The BATFE was used by the Clinton administration to reduce the number of firearm dealers, and by the administrations of presidents G. H. W. Bush and Clinton to restrict “assault weapons” by misinterpreting firearm importation law. The agency’s tracing data, sometimes useful in identifying persons involved in illegally trafficking firearms, have been mischaracterized by gun control supporters in the context of their campaigns against “Saturday Night Specials” and “assault weapons,” and in favor of making state gun laws more restrictive.
BATFE has been widely criticized for its role in the “Ruby Ridge” and “Waco” tragedies, and Operation Fast and Furious, in which the agency knowingly allowed firearms to be bought by straw purchasers and other traffickers, and thereafter smuggled from the United States to Mexico, where they made their way to violent drug cartels.
Friday, October 28, 2016
This week, the New York Attorney General’s Office, led by Eric T. Schneiderman, released a report entitled “Target ...
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
The operations were marked by “poor management, insufficient training and guidance to agents in the field, and a ...
Office of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
Monday, September 12, 2016
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley today issued the following statement regarding a Justice Department Inspector General report ...
Friday, September 2, 2016
The self-proclaimed “Dean of Comedy,” radio talk show host Dean Obeidallah, has blamed a Chicago African-American mother’s murder, ...
Thursday, September 1, 2016
A federal ban on the sale of guns to medical marijuana card holders does not violate the Second ...
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Earlier this summer, ATF released an Explosives Industry Newsletter that changed the agency’s treatment of nitrocellulose, the primary ...
Friday, August 12, 2016
While wishful gun control supporters keep peddling the fiction that gun ownership is declining, the firearms industry is growing ...
Friday, August 12, 2016
It’s a good thing for Hillary Clinton that Michael Bloomberg decided against running for president this year. If ...
Friday, July 8, 2016
Americans are buying guns at an unprecedented rate (please see related story) and have been doing so for ...
Monday, June 20, 2016
The gun store where a CBS News employee purchased a gun for a segment that aired Thursday on ...
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