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.
Monday, September 26, 2011
No longer content with simply stonewalling a congressional investigation into “Operation Fast and Furious,” President Barack Obama’s Justice ...
Monday, September 12, 2011
The more we learn about the “Fast and Furious” scandal — in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, ...
Thursday, August 25, 2011
In federal bureaucracy, promoted men don’t talk, and nowhere is there a more glaring example than the recent ...
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
The National Rifle Association is fully funding and supporting a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s demand that Federal ...
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Today, during consideration of the FY 2012 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill, pro-gun U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) ...
Monday, July 11, 2011
$40 billion transnational criminal enterprises don't fill out paperwork and are not deterred by paperwork violations. This is ...
Friday, July 1, 2011
You have to look back at recent history to understand the origins and true danger to our liberty ...
Sunday, June 19, 2011
In spite of a rejection by the White House and a strong show of congressional support for gun ...
Sunday, June 19, 2011
With the shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in a remote Arizona canyon by armed ...
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Yesterday, the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice unanimously passed Senate Bill 39 by a voice vote, ...