Hi again folks.
Like I said on Saturday, I feel like each of these new bills pre-filed by Sheila Jackson Lee deserve to be looked at separately, so here’s the first one. Like the others, the text of the bill hasn’t been released, just the title, but we can sort of see where these are going, none the less.
H.R. 121 – To provide for the hiring of 200 additional Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents and investigators to enforce gun laws.
Now, on the surface, this bill has potential. I don’t see a problem with hiring more ATF agents. The challenges here are few, to be sure. First, will they all be on the same page? Second, what’s the goal? Third, what will it accomplish? These are the only questions that I come up with off the cuff, maybe you guys can leave a comment and let me know if I’m missing anything.
Will they be on the same page? I ask this because there have been some issues recently with the ATF reversing previous policies and people getting in trouble as a result. Pistol braces are one such policy. If you aren’t aware of what I’m talking about, I encourage you to google it, but here’s how I understand it.
Most, if not all, firearms manufacturers reach out to the ATF for guidance when developing a new product, to ensure that the product is within the ATF’s laws and guidelines. This SHOULD keep them from getting in trouble down the road. A company called Q LLC produces a firearm called the Honey Badger. It falls into the AR pistol category of firearms. My understanding is that before producing and marketing the Honey Badger, they received approval from the ATF. In August of last year, Q received a letter from the ATF, stating that the ATF now considered the Honey Badger and two other products that they manufacture to be in violation of the National Firearms Act. This not only put Q in violation of the law, but also any person that purchased these previously approved products. In October, the DOJ stepped in and informed Q that the order from the ATF was suspended, pending further review. In December, the ATF posted on their website that they were withdrawing the order temporarily, pending further review. This still isn’t decided, but it certainly muddies the water some regarding the legality of AR pistols, which have been very popular in recent years. They didn’t touch on all AR pistol manufacturers, just Q, so it gets even more confusing and speculative about the future. Where will no agents be on this, the original “it’s fine”, or the new “it violates the NFA” or the newer, “we don’t really know how we are going to move forward”? Before we expand the agency, wouldn’t it be a good idea to get everyone on the same page?
What’s the goal? I don’t see more ATF agents solving any problems in the “gun debate”, especially so few.
This leads to the last question. What will it accomplish? The ATF is not an agency that generally operates on the “street”. They are an agency that works on a larger scale, local law enforcement usually has to investigate and arrest the criminals. The ATF isn’t in a position to help with the type of gun violence that gun control advocates claim to be concerned about. Four agents per state isn’t going to change that. Again, I’m all for enforcing constitutional firearms laws, it’s necessary if we are going to have laws for someone to enforce them, but this just smacks of introducing a law to pretend to be doing something in order to campaign later.
At the end of the day, the only concern with this bill is the fact that it deals with firearms and is going to be written by a woman who seems to be committed to eliminating firearms entirely in the country. We’ll have to see the text before we have a strong opinion.
Don’t forget, enjoy the time you have, it’s precious…