It’s Time For Some “Gun Control”.
By Charles Heller
Executive Director, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.
Copyright 2011, JPFO.
Since its modern mutation in 1968 (via the “Gun Control Act of 1968), and with an infusion of power to it in 1972 by Treasury Department Order No. 120-1, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) has amassed a truly sordid record of “gun control.”
Although it’s website somewhat outlandishly claims a history going back to 1789, BATFE’s modern roots go to its failed attempts at the enforcement of Prohibition (another stupid idea from the federal government).
There’s hardly anything as pathetic as a bloated government agency, in search of a mission. So the “BAT” got their hands on guns and became “BATF”. The “E” came later.
Follow their criminal and bloody escapades from the Ken Ballew raid debacle in 1971, to the deceit that triggered the Randy Weaver travesty in Idaho, to the incitement of violence in the horror at Waco,Texas, to the despicable acts in the John Lawmaster Raid.
The ATF, and later the BATFE, has now distinguished itself as the least disciplined, least accomplished, least effective, and most unethical “law enforcement” agency in U.S. law enforcement history.
Along its way towards the immense and international dung pile they are attempting to dig themselves out of now (“Operation Fast and Furious” aka “Project Gun Runner“), BATFE has also managed to ensnare a number of truly remarkable, creative, and innovative firearms manufacturers, in needless red tape, inconvenience, and useless, unwarranted prosecution. Len Savage came to know their wrath. This is well documented by our organization, JPFO.
Rarely has a year gone by without some perfidy from “The Gang”. These “lesser sins” are seldom covered in the blatantly anti-gun mainstream media.
However, it seems chickens are now coming home to roost. BATFE’s criminal activity in the “Operation Fast And Furious” debacle brings with it implications that involve the administration up to the U.S. Attorney General, and possibly include the sitting President. And we are just learning that it appears that ten million dollars of “stimulus” money was directed towards “Project Gun Runner”!
Generally, we at JPFO view gun control as poison, but not necessarily in this case. We actually think that it is now time for some good, old fashioned DISARMAMENT.
Disarm the BATFE. It’s time to disarm its agents, and decertify BATFE as a law enforcement agency.
Let’s transform them back into the stamp clerks (suitable for affixing labels on wine and whiskey bottles) that they once were. Then the only harm they can inflict on the body politic would be paper cuts.
To be sure, there are some decent and moral people who work there. Or did, like ATF Senior Special Agent Mr. John Dodson, who was recently fired for telling the truth to Congress about the misdeeds of BATFE in recent testimony.
An ATF response memo to Dodson, about his complaint to superiors before he went public, stated, ”If you don’t think this is fun, you’re in the wrong line of work. Maybe the Maricopa County Jail is hiring detention officers, and you can get paid $30,000 to serve lunch to inmates.”
Meanwhile, this same superior in BATFE was approving the funneling of guns to known cold blooded murderers south of the border. Ironically, when everything shakes down, this particular superior might, himself, be getting served just such a lunch!
Do the folks running BATFE think it’s an just a glitch in an academic exercise when Mexican citizens get murdered by guns BATFE willfully allowed to reach crazed killers? Apparently, these same BATFE drones took it a little more seriously when American law enforcement agents began to fall as a result of the ludicrous and immoral “Gun Runner” policy.
On December 10, 2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down at the U.S. Border, in a shootout. Two of the guns found at that murder scene were found to be from Operation Fast and Furious.
Yes, it’s time to disarm the BATFE.
Let their agents and labs investigate arson, bootleg liquor, and black market smokes, and do some of the fine tool mark examining (in crime gun forensics) those labs are known for. Some of their outside contractors do a great job of instructing in that field. Let them be forensic scientists and liquor stamp distributors. Just don’t let them near any guns!
Take away their badges. Badges are symbols of honor from a country as great as ours. BATFE Agents can carry business cards, like any other overpaid, tax consuming, foot dragging bureaucrat. Let’s convert these morally challenged individuals from jackboots to fur boots, or at least gumshoes without guns.
Charles Heller is the Executive Director of Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership.
© Copyright Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.