Constitutional Law

Word of shakeups in ATF command

Word is circulating that a number of ATF supervisors, from field up to high HQ levels, Assistant Directors and such, are being effectively suspended (effectively, but without using that term) while higher powers look into their competence and allegations of abuse and/or fraud. The Inspector General is said to be taking a role, and some of those involved in matters like Red's Trading Post are under the microscope.

About time; I just hope it goes far enough. There's a lot of good agents out there, who're perfectly reasonable toward firearm owners and honest in their work. The problem is for decades the agency has overlooked the ones who weren't and too often promoted them. (It was esp. bad in the late 70s, when the driving force was producing arrests and seizures, so that the abusive guys were "getting results" and the reasonable ones were not -- and for bureaucratic reasons, including the fact that US Attorneys wouldn't prosecute, felon-in-possession case were useless).

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on May 26, 2008 (boomark / email).