ATF - Rogue Agency

Let's not let this one slip by us...


Anti-gun Zealot Andrew Traver Nominated to Head ATF

Look at some of the things he supports. 

- Establish a “best practices" protocol for voluntary gun surrender programs
- Destroy all firearms that come into the possession of any law enforcement agency (even if such firearms were initially stolen and then recovered)
- Track and follow all private gun sales in a national data base with a mandatory background check on the purchaser
- Limit the sale of “multiple handguns”
- Mandate a “ballistic fingerprint” for every gun that is sold
- Require that every gun come with a lock
- Require that every owner provide for a federally regulated “safe storage” for his weapons, and “prosecute those who fail to comply with [those] safe storage laws.”
- Enact legislation “to allow federal health and safety oversight of the firearms industry.”

Most chillingly, recommendation #22 was: “The federal government should increase funding to the ATF for personnel and technical assistance to combat gun violence.”  

"The bureau’s history reaches back to 1886 where the agency was part of the U.S. Treasury Department, but grew substantial legs in 1968 after the Gun Control Act was passed. Following the 9/11 attacks, the ATF was transferred to the Justice Department, where it “regulates via licensing the sale, possession and transportation of firearms, ammunition and explosives in interstate commerce.” The bureau has a budget exceeding $1 billion annually and employs 5,000 including 2,400 special agents.

Special agents have the broadest authority of any federal agency, with the power to “enforce any statute in the United States Code. Specifically, ATF special agents have [the] lead investigative authority on any federal crime committed with a firearm,” and while the agency may cooperate with other federal agencies, it is free to operate independently of any of them. " source

Do Not Forget Ruby Ridge

Ruby Ridge Siege

Lest you have forgotten, the ATF, which operates  independently,  was behind the framing of Randy Weaver for a weapons violation.  The Federal Marshals drove tanks up Randy's dirt road at Ruby Ridge to his remote cabin which just happens to be spitting distance from my home.  They shot his son, Samuel age 14, in the back, killing him.  They shot and killed his wife, who was standing in the door of their cabin holding their 10 month old infant daughter, Elisheba.  A friend of the Weavers, Kevin Harris, was also shot and wounded as well as Randy.  They even killed the family pet dog, Striker, and proceeded to drive back and forth over his body until he was a pancake.

On about August 24, 1992, the fourth day of the siege on the Weaver family, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Danny Coulson wrote a memo:

OPR 004477
Something to Consider

1. Charge against Weaver is Bull Shit.
2. No one saw Weaver do any shooting.
3. Vicki has no charges against her.
4. Weaver's defense. He ran down the hill to see what the dog was
barking at. Some guys in camys shot his dog.
Started shooting at him. Killed his son. Harris did the
shooting [of Degan]. He [Weaver] is in pretty strong legal position."

Fire at Waco

Approximately 6 months later the ATF spearheaded a seige on the David Koresh compound in Waco, TX.  When the ATF failed to serve a search warrant, they were joined by the FBI and initiated the siege.  Fifty days later, a second failed assault on the compound started a fire killing 76 people, including more than 20 children and two pregnant women.

We have a dangerous habit of believing that it "won't happen to us."  Well it could, and the way things are going it may strike sooner than you expect.  American citizens are being lined up at airports and frisked like common criminals and threatened with 11K fines if they try to leave - all to "keep us safe." How long before this takes place at the train stations, buses, and subways?

It seems to me the things that Mr. Travers supports should be applied to the ATF  and not to law obeying citizens of this country.

Update:

From Mind Numbed Robot:
and we thank him...

 Won’t you sign the petition to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in  support of Brian Aitken?

Thanks to Red for bringing this to our attention.
And please share this story with every freaking person in America.

 The Article:
Brian Aitken's Mistake 
A New Jersey man gets seven years for being a responsible gun owner.