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, December 6, 2021
Last week, the Sixth Circuit failed to achieve the majority necessary to correct the ATF’s shifting classifications of bump ...
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
In recent weeks, Americans have rightly become concerned over a somewhat obscure ATF recordkeeping regulation that has a profound impact ...
Monday, October 4, 2021
Disgraced Biden nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), David Chipman, seems determined ...
Monday, September 13, 2021
When President Joe Biden picked gun control advocate David Chipman to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, ...
Thursday, September 9, 2021
The NRA applauds the reported withdraw of David Chipman's nomination to head the ATF.
Wednesday, September 8, 2021
As we’ve previously reported, the Biden Department of Justice is threatening to upend the U.S. firearm industry and ...
Monday, September 6, 2021
In June, ATF published a new notice of proposed rulemaking on its website entitled Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached “Stabilizing ...
Thursday, August 19, 2021
Rep. Richard Hudson, a staunch Second Amendment advocate, is sounding off on what he sees as a new, ...
Thursday, August 19, 2021
As we’ve previously reported, the Biden Department of Justice is threatening to upend the U.S. firearm industry and ...
Monday, August 16, 2021
The Biden Department of Justice is threatening to upend the U.S. firearm industry and how Americans exercise their ...