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.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
In a letter sent today, Alaskan Congressman Don Young called on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and ...
Friday, February 24, 2012
Last week, Mexican President Felipe Calderon unveiled a “billboard” near the U.S. border made of crushed firearms formed ...
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Prosecutors recently sentenced a Texas man, Manuel Barba, for trafficking a weapon connected to the murder of Immigration ...
Friday, February 17, 2012
Barack Obama’s careful effort to hide his anti-Second Amendment agenda is starting to come undone. The latest evidence ...
Friday, February 17, 2012
It has been said that if you tell a lie often enough, and convincingly enough, people will start ...
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
On Saturday, February 11, 2012, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered ...
Monday, February 13, 2012
While criticism surrounding Operation Fast and Furious has so far focused on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and ...
Friday, February 10, 2012
For over a year now I have been investigating Fast and Furious, an operation of the Bureau of ...
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Last Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to answer ...
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Former Tucson Drug Enforcement Administration chief Tony Coulson told The Daily Caller that Attorney General Eric Holder either ...
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