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.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent who blew the whistle on the botched Fast ...
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
A weapon tied to "Operation Fast and Furious" was seized in Tijuana in connection with a drug cartel's ...
Friday, August 3, 2012
ATF Deputy Director William Hoover has resigned, just days after a congressional report on Operation Fast and Furious ...
Friday, August 3, 2012
This week, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released Part 1 of a joint congressional ...
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Senator Chuck Grassley ...
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Five officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives share much of the blame for what ...
Friday, July 20, 2012
Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa today urged the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, ...
Friday, July 20, 2012
In their latest attempt to protect whistleblowers from BATFE reprisal, on July 18 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ...
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Whistle blowers blew the lid off Operation Fast and Furious, but the new head of the Bureau of ...
Friday, July 13, 2012
In January 2011, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released its "Study on the Importability of ...