I submit the following from the NRA-ILA:NEXT: I’ll join the NRA…
3. When the NRA calls for the complete and unconditional disbanding of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE). Gun owners should be appalled at the NRA leadership’s incestuous “good cop/bad cop” dance with the BATFE. For decades there has been a symbiotic, and liberty threatening, “good ole’ boy” relationship between NRA and BATFE.
They should instead be mortal enemies.
The BATFE’s abuses are legion and despicable. These criminal acts crested like a bloody wave with the horrific deceit and treachery the agency displayed at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and then at Waco, Texas.
JPFO has produced a documentary about the BATFE called “The Gang” for which you kindly donated footage, showing you teaching teenagers how to use firearms safely. As you know, “The Gang” is not specifically about Ruby Ridge or Waco, it’s about how, with deliberate regularity, the BATFE criminally harasses honest gun owners.
Did you know that, back during the Administration of Ronald Reagan, President Reagan actually wanted to dismantle the then “BATF”? Who stopped him? The NRA! See this Time Magazine article that reports this hypocrisy.
The NRA has publicly stated that it wants to “work with” BATFE to punish the criminal use of guns, see: copy of NRA response letter. Let the local police, county sheriff, State police, or the FBI, do what they were assigned and sworn to do in the first place.
We don’t need these bucket headed, jack booted paramilitary goons playing cops in our lives.
And then there’s the firearms. This means “gun control”, and every single threat to our freedom that comes along with it.
On top of that, tobacco is a drug. Alcohol is a drug. Give that authority to the FDA. Explosives? Wasn’t that an FBI specialty already?
Again, the guy who wrote the original screed is ignorant at best, and deliberately uninformed at worst.BATFE Reform Bill Introduced In U.S. Senate
Friday, May 01, 2009
Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced S. 941 -- the "Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Reform and Firearms Modernization Act" -- on April 30. Senator Leahy is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to which S. 941 has been referred.
S. 941 represents the first time such BATFE Reform legislation has been introduced in the Senate. However, the House passed similar legislation (H.R. 5092) in the 109th Congress by a 277-131 vote. A majority of the House -- 224 congressmen -- cosponsored a similar bill (H.R. 4900), in the 110th Congress.
This bipartisan reform legislation is the culmination of efforts to address BATFE abuses and problems that were highlighted in several congressional oversight hearings in 2006. (To read more about these hearings, please click here.) S. 941 represents NRA-ILA's latest efforts to pass legislation that will make it easier for lawful gun owners and dealers to comply with federal law and regulations, while ensuring that those who break the law are punished accordingly [emphasis mine- TAM]. This bipartisan bill also serves as a vital step toward modernizing and improving BATFE's overall operations. The bill would roll back unnecessary restrictions, correct errors, and codify longstanding congressional policies in the firearms arena, and is a vital step needed to modernize and improve BATFE operations.
A fact sheet on S. 941 can be found here. The House companion to S. 941 will be introduced next week.
Please be sure to contact your two U.S. Senators and ask them to cosponsor and support S. 941! You can call your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121.