By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Over the years, ATF, like other federal agencies, has had its scandals and controversies and challenges getting respect. It has battled the National Rifle Association, had to deal with morale issues and public criticism from within. NPR’s Carrie Johnson reports that the agency’s new leader B. Todd Jones,the former U.S. Attorney…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com One of Washington’s long standing absurdities came to an end Wednesday. For seven years, ATF had been unable to get a director confirmed by the Senate, a goal that was often blocked by such gun organizations as the National Rifle Association. But Wednesday that logjam came to an end. The Senate,…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com In the back-and-forth, knock down drag out battle over gun rights, no victory goes unchallenged. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that the US gun industry, according to the Chicago Tribune, appealed on Monday US Judge Rosemary Collyer’s recent decision upholding a new requirement by the ATF that gun dealers in…
By The Los Angeles Times Editorial Page The Obama administration took a concrete step toward curbing the flow of semiautomatic weapons to Mexico last week when it adopted a new regulation mandating the reporting of multiple sales of long guns to federal authorities. Under the regulation, some 8,500 licensed gun shops in Arizona, California, New…
By The Washington Post Editorial Page WASHINGTON — ONLY ABOUT 10 percent of the nation’s 100,000 licensed gun dealers are audited each year by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The ATF cannot fine wayward dealers; its only tool at the moment involves revoking a miscreant’s license. And that happens only about…
