By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com If the ATF gets its way, new gun owners will have to identify their ethnicity on firearm records. But lawmakers in the House have introduced a bill to eliminate that controversial requirement, The Hill reports. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., demanded answers. “The right of law-abiding citizens to own firearms is an…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A federal judge gave what former ATF agent Jay Dobyns seemed to want most: Vindication. The Arizona Republic writes that U.S. Federal Claims Judge Francis M. Allegra of D.C. ruled in a lawsuit filed by Dobyns that ATF failed to properly respond to death threats against him after he infiltrated the…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI has been quietly waging a turf battle with other federal law enforcement agencies for taking over violent crimes, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to an internal memo, FBI managers are growing more frustrated with the ATF and Homeland Security for taking over cases that the bureau believes it should…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Christopher Shaefer, who served as special agent in charge of the ATF’s Atlanta office, has been promoted to the position of deputy assistant director of the federal agency, the Manteca Bulletin reports. Shaefer began his law enforcement career as an officer for the Manteca Police Department in California in 1982 before joining…
To the Honorable Members of the Senate and House of Representatives: My name is Jay Dobyns. In January of this year, I retired from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after twenty-seven years of decorated service. Today is the six-year anniversary of the arson of my home. My wife and two children were inside…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A man with a second-grade reading level and a low IQ was acquitted in an ATF sting operation because he was entrapped, a jury decided. The jury acquitted Alexis Davis on two counts agreeing that the ATF entrapped the man by “pressing” him to break the law. Had the ATF not encouraged…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The number of ATF cases recommended for prosecution dropped by a third since 2004, according to data compiled by Syracuse University, the Washington Times reports. Federal investigators and gun law experts said the decline is attributed to a policy change in the Obama administration, which has changed its focus to regulatory-type cases….
By Brad Heath USA Today WASHINGTON — The nation’s top gun-enforcement agency overwhelmingly targeted racial and ethnic minorities as it expanded its use of controversial drug sting operations, a USA TODAY investigation shows. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has more than quadrupled its use of those stings during the past decade, quietly…
