BATFE Requests “Emergency” Authority

[Paslode]

From the NRA

BATFE Requests “Emergency”
Authority To Track Semi-Automatic Rifle Sales

Friday, December 17, 2010


The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has proposed that it be given emergency authority for six months, beginning January 5, to require about 8,500 firearms dealers along the border with Mexico “to alert authorities when they sell within five consecutive business days two or more semiautomatic rifles greater than .22 caliber with detachable magazines.” A Washington Post story reporting on the BATFE proposal described that definition as being applicable to “so-called assault weapons,” but it would also apply to many rifles that have never been labeled with that term.

The reporting requirement will apparently be imposed under the “authority” the BATFE has used in the past to demand reporting of other types of transactions from certain limited groups of dealers over the past 10 years, but the new proposal is far broader than any previous use of this authority. Of course, there's no law today that prevents dealers from reporting suspicious transactions (or attempted transactions) to the BATFE, and dealers often do so. The BATFE is also free to inspect dealers' sales records—either for annual compliance inspections or during a criminal investigation.

NRA-ILA’s chief lobbyist, Chris Cox, denounced the attempt to establish a registry of Americans who purchase semi-automatic rifles that gun control supporters ultimately want to see banned. "This administration does not have the guts to build a wall, but they do have the audacity to blame and register gun owners for Mexico's problems," Cox told the Post. "NRA supports legitimate efforts to stop criminal activity, but we will not stand idle while our Second Amendment is sacrificed for politics."

The Post says “The plan by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives revives a proposal that has languished at the Justice Department and in the Obama administration for several months,” and that the gist of the plan was proposed by Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) last year. It its August 2009 Blueprint for Federal Action on Guns, MAIG indeed proposed that “ATF should identify the long guns most linked to crime and require dealers to report multiple sales of such guns.”

The idea must have appealed to the BATFE, because in June of this year Congress’ Government Accountability Office released a report noting that BATFE officials had claimed that U.S. efforts to stop the smuggling of firearms to Mexico are hindered by “a lack of required background checks for private firearms sales, and limitations on reporting requirements for multiple sales.”

Curiously, in September, a draft of the Department of Justice’s Inspector General’s Office’s unfavorable review of BATFE’s Project Gunrunner, established to combat the trafficking of firearms to Mexico, didn’t mention multiple sales at all. But the final version of the review, released in November, mentions “multiple sales” 43 times and says “the lack of a reporting requirement for multiple sales of long guns – which have become the cartels’ weapons of choice – hinders ATF’s ability to disrupt the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico.”

Whether BATFE intends its plan as another expansion of its oft-criticized firearm sales record tracing empire, or to lay the groundwork for legislation or regulations restricting “assault weapon” sales, or to fatten the files the agency keeps at its National Tracing Center in West Virginia remains to be seen. And the legality of requiring sales reports on any long guns is also in doubt. When the Congress specifically imposed multiple sales reporting on handguns only, it implicitly stated its intention that the same requirement not apply to sales of long guns.

However, it is crystal clear that some in the Obama Administration agree with those who believe the answer to crime is always more gun control. In September, MAIG blamed crime in states that have “strong” gun laws, on states that don’t have the same laws. And ever since President Obama took office, gun control supporters have been blaming Mexico’s crime problem on America’s gun laws.

The fact that Mexico’s multi-billion dollar drug cartels have machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, and other potent weaponry you cannot buy in the United States is, to gun control supporters, irrelevant. The fact that most of the cartels’ guns have never been on this side of the U.S. border is, as far as they are concerned, a trifling inconvenience. The fact that the cartels will never have enough “assault weapons” or any other guns from the U.S. to hand out to all the Mexican policemen, soldiers and politicians on their payrolls, is, in their view, an unimportant detail. And the fact that the murder rate in the United States is at a 45-year low, while crime in Mexico is through the roof (the murder rate in Juarez is 115 times higher than in El Paso) is, they would certainly say, a contradiction best ignored.

To read the BATFE's Federal Register notice about the plan, and for information on how to send your comments, click here (http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-31761.pdf). Comments about the proposal will be accepted for two months; if you choose to comment, please state your firm but polite opposition to the plan.

Needless to say, the NRA will not only comment, but take whatever other action is appropriate to block this sweeping expansion of federal recordkeeping on gun owners. Stay tuned.

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Fe...d.aspx?id=6103

[dr. mabuse]

*

[tonyz]

In my experience, most (make that the vast majority) of bureaucrats mistake activity, any activity, for productivity.

[rubberneck]

Frankly what happens to the south of our border is the Mexican governments problem and not IMHO an "emergency" on our behalf. We should show them the same level of concern about illegal weapons flowing southward into Mexico as they show on the issues of illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Since they don't seem to care about the impact of either on our country I don't see why we should be violating our citizens rights out of concern for them.

[PedOncoDoc]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

Gun control really works. Look what a bang up job it has done for Mexico.

Heck - you can add Washington DC and Chicago to that list.

[Oldrotorhead]

Originally Posted by tonyz

In my experience, most (make that the vast majority) of bureaucrats mistake activity, any activity, for productivity.

Tho White House should be happy that manufacturing has seen an up tick, foreign exports have increased, and using government math thousands of job have been created.

[mark46th]

Mexico's timing is perfect in blaming the U.S. for its Narco problems. Pol Pot could rise from the dead, blame U.S. aggression for killing 3,000,000 of his own people and Erik Holder and Obama would be on their knees kissing his genocidal ass while giving him billions of dollars in aid to renovate Tuol Seng...

[greenberetTFS]

Thank God we have the NRA!..........

Big Teddy

[Paslode]

White House delayed rule meant to stop gun flow to Mexico

By Sari Horwitz and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 17, 2010; 11:37 PM

This spring, President Obama promised Mexican President Felipe Calderon that he would work to deter gunrunning south of the border. Behind the scenes, White House officials were putting the brakes on a proposal to require gun dealers to report bulk sales of the high-powered semiautomatic rifles favored by drug cartels.

Justice Department officials had asked for White House approval to require thousands of gun dealers along the border to report the purchases to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF investigators expected to get leads on suspected arms traffickers.

Senior law enforcement sources said the proposal from the ATF was held up by the White House in early summer. The sources, who asked to be anonymous because they were discussing internal deliberations, said that the effort was shelved by then-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a veteran of battles with the gun lobby during the Clinton administration.

Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Emanuel, who is running for mayor of Chicago, said Emanuel "did not stop the policy from being implemented." Emanuel "has never taken a back seat to anyone when it comes to standing up to the NRA to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals," LaBolt said.

White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said, "We don't comment on interagency policy deliberations, but the president is committed to cracking down on violence on the Southwest border."

The plan - which officials knew would be strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association - was perceived as too volatile just before midterm elections, the sources said.

Last month, ATF Deputy Director Kenneth Melson asked the Justice Department to try again, law enforcement officials said.

"We appreciate the support of the Department of Justice and the administration as we seek to stem the flow of firearms to Mexico," ATF chief spokesman Scot Thomasson said.

On Friday, the ATF published the emergency proposal in the Federal Register. The proposal requires dealers to report to the bureau anytime they make two or more sales over a five-day period of semiautomatic rifles that have a caliber greater than .22 and a detachable magazine. It would be valid for six months.

Dealers have been required for decades to report the sales of multiple handguns to the ATF.

The gun lobby responded angrily to the emergency proposal.

"The timing of this announcement, following the midterm elections, has not gone unnoticed by industry," said Ted Novin, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a group that represents gun dealers and manufacturers.

"We remain opposed to further burdening America's law-abiding firearms retailers with yet another onerous regulation that will do nothing to curb crime," Novin said. "Furthermore, multiple sales reporting of long guns will actually make it more difficult for licensed retailers to help law enforcement as traffickers modify their illegal schemes to circumvent the reporting requirement."

In May, Obama assured Calderon that the administration would assist Mexico in curbing drug cartel violence, which has led to 30,000 deaths in Mexico. "President Calderon and I . . . stand together against the drug cartels that have unleashed horrific violence in so many communities," Obama said on May 19. "Mexico can count on the United States as a full partner in this effort."

LaBolt said that Emanuel recommended Andy Traver of Chicago to be nominated by Obama to be director of the ATF and was the "point man" in the Clinton administration when Congress passed an assault weapons ban and required background checks for gun sales. Clinton later blamed those bills for the GOP takeover of Congress in 1995.

horwitzs@washpost.com grimaldij@washpost.com

Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.

Originally Posted by greenberetTFS

Thank God we have the NRA!..........

Big Teddy

FFT - http://www.nraila.org/legislation/read.aspx?id=6084

Andy Traver on 'Assault Weapons' --> http://media.nbcchicago.com/designvi...wf?id=69623722

National Reviews take - http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...john-r-lott-jr

I wonder what interesting things will happen during the Senate recess........

[The Reaper]

Maybe he could sign an executive order to suspend Habeus Corpus while they are at it.

No good can come of this move.

How about we suspend the rights of Muslim Americans and start investigating mosques in this country? Probably be a lot more productive, and just about as legal.

TR

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Maybe he could sign an executive order to suspend Habeus Corpus while they are at it.

No good can come of this move.

How about we suspend the rights of Muslim Americans and start investigating mosques in this country? Probably be a lot more productive, and just about as legal.

TR

I totally concur,then lets see how long that would last!..........

Big Teddy

[Paslode]

For the reason 'From my Cold Dead hands' being shouted from many rooftops, I doubt they would outright confiscate existing weapons deemed as evil anytime soon. But if this 'emergency' move is deemed a success in the Border region and/or as the traffickers move their operations North where things are less restrictive the regulations would be enforced nationwide making it a bitch for many to legally purchase a firearm.

It is bad mojo iin the making.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by mark46th

Mexico's timing is perfect in blaming the U.S. for its Narco problems. Pol Pot could rise from the dead, blame U.S. aggression for killing 3,000,000 of his own people and Erick Holder and Obama would be on their knees kissing his genocidal ass while giving him billions of dollars in aid to renovate Tuol Seng...

Roger that.

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by mark46th

Mexico's timing is perfect in blaming the U.S. for its Narco problems. Pol Pot could rise from the dead, blame U.S. aggression for killing 3,000,000 of his own people and Erick Holder and Obama would be on their knees kissing his genocidal ass while giving him billions of dollars in aid to renovate Tuol Seng...

You've got that right!............

Big Teddy

[hurly]

The following cut and paste is from an article in Pajamas Media in 2009:

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/testimo...0-percent-lie/

"The myth that legal guns sales in the United States are responsible for Mexican drug cartel violence took another serious blow last week when an ATF official testified in Congress that only eight percent of weapons recovered in Mexico came through licensed U.S. gun dealers.

This figure is far lower than the 90 percent claim made previously as an appeal to reinstate ineffective gun laws that expired in 2004. The claim — still active among the less informed or serially dishonest — officially became myth during congressional testimony last week when , revealed the eight percent figure, how it was calculated, and where the 90 percent myth arose from.

Of the 100,000 weapons recovered by Mexican authorities, only 18,000 were determined to have been manufactured, sold, or imported from the United States, and of those 18,000, just 7,900 came from sales by licensed gun dealers."
"Only eight percent of guns recovered from cartels in Mexico originated from legal gun dealers in the U.S.: not 90 percent as Obama has claimed."


Kind of puts the lie to the common myth that the guns come from legal sales in the US.
Don't they listen to their own? "Bill McMahon, deputy assistant director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives" has stated in the above their figures are flawed.
Oh well, internal consistency is to much to expect.