NWV News - Eliminate ATF instead of cutting national security budgets, say officials

ELIMINATE ATF INSTEAD OF CUTTING NATIONAL SECURITY BUDGETS, SAY OFFICIALS

By NWV News Writer Jim Kouri
Posted 1:00 AM Eastern
January 11, 2013
© 2013 NewsWithViews.com

Several well-regarded law-enforcement officials and gun-rights activists strongly suggested that President Barack Obama and lawmakers get rid of the scandal-prone Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives instead of cutting national security agencies and budgets including the U.S. military.

"The House of Representatives should slash the budget of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives or simply eliminate the agency," gun rights expert John M. Snyder said from his office in Bethesda, Md.

"This would be a good first step as sensible U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators work to curtail expenditure of the irresponsible federal establishment," the former NRA editor stated.

As a constitutional matter, financial expenditure bills originate in the House of Representatives. This would be an appropriate place for Speaker John Boehner and House members to cry 'Halt' to the out-of-control federal government, Snyder, who also serves as an advisory board member of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

The ATF has been on a collision course with the House of Representatives for months. Attorney General Eric Holder remains under a contempt resolution from the House for his refusal to cooperate with the House in the production of documents associated with the ATF Fast and Furious international firearms scandal. ATF is part of the Justice Department, according to the House of Representatives' reports and documents.

Snyder said that, "ATF figures in schemes of political panderers and monsters of the media who are on a binge of hate. They use murderous acts by criminals as an excuse for proposals to undermine the individual Second Amendment civil right to keep and bear arms of millions of law-abiding American citizens. These gun-grabbing bingers don't want citizens to be able to defend themselves against these murderers and they want ATF to do their dirty work." www.GunRightsPolicies.org

"The recent introduction in Congress of anti-gun owner bills surely will be met with deep and hard opposition by America's millions of law-abiding gun owners," Snyder said.

Snyder noted that, "President Barack Obama, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Reps. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and other political hacks are conspiring to take away American gun rights. It is time for the House of Representatives to slash the ATF budget or eliminate the agency."

A decorated New York police detective, Sid Franes, believes the ATF is a corrupt and unnecessary organization with a history of lawlessness.

Franes narrated the following with regard to an ATF fiasco in 1993:

"When Attorney General Holder served in the Clinton Administration as Assistant Attorney General, there was a religious sect named the Branch Davidian whose leader was a charismatic, sociopath who conned his followers into believing he was a modern day Messiah. They created a compound in Waco, Texas, where they became self-sufficient and desired only one thing from society: to be left alone. Of course, in order to protect themselves and their property they maintained an arsenal within their compound which greatly distressed the federal government including Attorney General Janet Reno.

"In order to rationalize what was to come, there were phony allegations of child abuse and sexual assault leveled at the inhabitants of the Branch Davidian compound. The Reno Justice Department leaked phony stories about Branch Davidians buying semi-automatic firearms -- which was legal in Texas -- and turning them into fully automatic assault weapons.

"At the same time that Reno and her cronies in the Justice Department were prohibiting federal law enforcement from taking action against suspected Islamic terrorists and their sympathizers, they were planning a quasi-military operation to disarm and arrest members of Branch Davidian.

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"The rest is common knowledge. The extreme measures used against American citizens (including sleep deprivation, blasting loud music and noise, etc.) went unchallenged by the news media of the day. When the compound was attacked using military tactics and excessive deadly force that resulted in the death dozens of men, women and children, and with the compound engulfed by flames, there was absolutely no condemnation of Bill Clinton or Janet Reno. Even some conservatives appeared to condone such horror being inflicted on their fellow citizens."

Snyder said, "It is time for the House of Representatives to slash the ATF budget or eliminate the agency."