Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Interesting BATFE Post...

...over on ARMS AND THE LAW:
I've received the attached pdf file (small, 134K) from someone in the know. It details ATF agents' complaints regarding how managers are conducting themselves. Here are a few snippets:

" Field agents have attempted to challenge the un-ethical, and illegal actions of field managers through various means in recent years only to meet with retaliation so destructive it almost inevitably results in the challenges or allegations being withdrawn."

" Fear of ATF leadership has replaced transparency. Lack of trust and the absence of good faith in trying to resolve these issues have caused a growing number of Agents to rely upon legal means to invoke the protections and seek redress. Record numbers of EEOC, OIG, OSC, whistleblower and internal grievances face the new management team. Requests for congressional intervention by Agents across the country..."

"The EEOC complaints over the last 2 years number in the hundreds. The overwhelming percentage of which contain allegations of retaliation. "

" First impressions in the field are that Acting Director Michael Sullivan is a competent and professional leader who possesses the skill to lead the Bureau of ATF&E. However, he continues to act on filtered information from those who have created these problems. These problems and those responsible must be dealt with before the Bureau can restore trust in it management team.
There's also an interesting article on gun control in Burma...say, that's worked well! This from Samizdata:
Burma is a good example of 'gun control', i.e. a state of affairs where firearms are a legal monopoly of the government forces. One side has good intentions and the other side has loaded rifles, and the result (so far) has been the same as it was in 1988 - or even back in 1962 when the late General Ne Win first set up his socialist administration.
Mo' later!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So what does that "Government speak" mean?

Anonymous said...

Seems ta mean that even the ATF doesn't trust ATF - LOL. If even the lower agents can't trust thier bosses they need to scrap the whole dept and start 'anew'.

Anonymous said...

Move the useful bits out to other agencies ... The revenue collection stuff is under the Department of the Treasury right now.

Move the Bomb Unit into the FBI ... they can decide who to keep and who to fire.

Then start removing things the BATFE does:

Ditch 4473s and simply have the FFL write the Brady check response number into the bound book ... this allows backtracking until the Brady records get purged, and removes "willfull" paperwork error crap.

Then do the same with NFA transfers ... have the transferee fill out a form 4, put his photo on the back, and affix $200 worth of postage to it, and have the posties cancel it. If the tranferee passes the Brady check, put the brady response on the form, and then he gets the firearm, and keep the form 4 as proof of tax payment.

Once you no longer have to have BATFE agents spend money to investigate NFA transfers, the May 1986 restriction no longer applies.

Just remove all of these bits piecemeal, until the only thing the BATFE has left to do is chase felons who buy firearms.

Anonymous said...

Krisopher,

Sadly your ideas will never be implemented.

They make too much sense and still fulfill the requirements.