By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
The ATF is not equipped to handle gun violence and should be merged with the FBI to reduce firearms crime, according to a liberal think tank with strong ties to President Obama, the Washington Post reports.
The Center of American Progress provided a 182-page report that argued the ATF is hamstrung by inadequate resources, poor management and burdensome restrictions.
“We do not make the core recommendation of this report lightly and recognize that . . . this type of agency restructuring would be challenging and time-consuming,” said Arkadi Gerney, one of the report’s co-authors. “But the problem of gun violence in the United States warrants this kind of large-scale rethinking. With 33 people murdered with guns in the United States every day, it is time to think big about how best to fulfill the ATF’s mission to enforce gun laws and regulate the gun industry.”
The group argues the ATF should be folded into the FBI, an idea promoted by Republicans in years past.
A Justice Department spokesman’s said the agency “supports ATF in its current form and believes Congress should fully fund the president’s budget request that will enhance ATF’s ability to carry out their important mission.”
The NRA blamed the Obama administration on problems in the ATF.
“The Obama administration has only contributed to ATF’s dysfunction by politicizing the agency to implement its gun-control agenda,” said NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker. “Regardless of where ATF is located, the reality is that nothing will change until we have a president who respects the Second Amendment.”
