I was aware that the A.T.F. has been without a permanent director for the past six years, ever since the NRA goaded Congress into deciding that the position required Senate confirmation; but I did not know how antiquated the A.T.F. methods are or how restricted they are in helping to prohibit gun violence thanks to NRA backed laws passed by a Congress afraid to say "no".
"For example, under current laws the bureau is prohibited from creating a federal registry of gun transactions...
...When law enforcement officers recover a gun and serial number, workers at the bureau’s National Tracing Center here...begin making their way through a series of phone calls, asking first the manufacturer, then the wholesaler and finally the dealer to search their files to identify the buyer of the firearm. About a third of the time, the process involves digging through records sent in by companies that have closed, in many cases searching by hand through cardboard boxes filled with computer printouts, hand-scrawled index cards or even water-stained sheets of paper...
...In an age when data is often available with a few keystrokes, the A.T.F. is forced to follow this manual routine because the idea of establishing a central database of gun transactions has been rejected by lawmakers in Congress, who have sided with the National Rifle Association, which argues that such a database poses a threat to the Second Amendment...
...(The Firearm Owners Protection Act) reduced the falsification of records by dealers to a misdemeanor and put in place vague language defining what it meant to 'engage in business' without a dealer’s license...(The Tiarht amendments) limit the A.T.F.’s ability to share tracing information on firearms linked to crimes with local and state law enforcement agencies and with the public."
The manipulation of the laws of the land is nothing new. Lobbyist continue to shape and mold the thinking of elected officials.
ReplyDeleteThese same elected officials, now bought and paid for, carry the message of the special interests into our, yours & mine, everyday life.
Most recently it's the age old argument over the 2nd Amendment and the Right of Americans to "bear arms"
Much has been touted about the Bushmaster as a 'hunting rifle' V. Assault Rifle. I've stated my position on this several times, but for the record; ASSAULT means just that; Assault. But the 2nd Amendmenters are adamant about the Bill Of Rights. Or, are they?
That same Bill of Rights mentions Free Speech in the 1st Amendment. Now lets pause for a second and go back to "we have Rights".
Yes we sure do have RIGHTs. Twenty seven in fact. First came the first ten amendments to the Constitution, and they were later followed by seventeen more.
The 2nd Amendment guys are sticking to their guns. But to this end, it would seem the 2nd Amendment folks get a little upset.
Another RIGHT has popped up in a local paper in West Chester County, just north of New York City. It has obtained a list of all registered gun owners, in the area, and published their names and addresses on the internet.
These gun owners are not criminals, and all went through the "proper registration procedures". They own these guns legally.
BUT, and it's a big 'but', the gun owners who so emphatically support their RIGHTs as defined by the 2nd Amendment, aren't quite as supportive of the newspaper's RIGHTs under the 1st Amendment.
Guess some folks feel their RIGHT is tougher than my RIGHT.