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, November 2, 2012
This week, the second of three parts of the joint staff report on the "Fast and Furious" scandal ...
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Considering a worst-case scenario in which Obama is re-elected and, no longer beholden to voters, unleashes a multi-front ...
Thursday, September 27, 2012
The Senate Judiciary Committee's top Republican, who began the investigation into the "Fast and Furious" gunrunning probe nearly ...
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley says U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has given a "seriously flawed response" to the ...
Friday, September 21, 2012
Interviewers on Spanish language television network Univision grilled President Barack Obama about the Operation Fast and Furious scandal ...
Friday, September 21, 2012
The Obama administration has been trying to spin all manner of news like a centrifuge recently, so the ...
Thursday, September 20, 2012
The Justice Department's inspector general recommended on Wednesday that 14 current federal officials face disciplinary reviews over the ...
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Federal agents and prosecutors in Phoenix ignored risks to the public and were primarily responsible for the botched ...
Thursday, September 20, 2012
With the release of the Office of Inspector General's 500 page report on Operation Fast and Furious, we ...
Thursday, September 20, 2012
The Inspector General of the Department of Justice, whose office published the report on the botched gun probe ...
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