By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
For more than three decades, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF) has gotten a reputation as something of a cowboy operation or even a rogue agency over such incidents as Waco and Ruby Ridge, and operations Fast and Furious and “Fearless.”
Now, veteran Wisconsin Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is working on legislation that would dissolve the agency, merging its operations into other federal law enforcement entities, an aide confirmed in a telephone conversation with TGM.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel first reported the congressman’s proposal which came months after that newspaper did a scathing expose of a BATF storefront sting operation in three states, including Wisconsin that used at least one developmentally disabled person.
Sensenbrenner’s office said the bill is still being crafted. He also suggested that ATF functions could be absorbed by other agencies such as the FBI and U.S. Marshals or DEA.
While the Waco blunder led to the loss of several lives, including many children at the Branch Davidian compound, Fast and Furious has become something of a debacle on a massive scale. Designed originally to trace gun trafficking, the operation flooded northern Mexico with guns purchased at various Arizona gun stores but “walked” across the border to drug cartels.
Some 2,000 guns were lost in the operation, and even today they continue to turn up at Mexican crime scenes. Some estimates have a body count in the hundreds in Mexico, but the highest-profile victim of guns linked to the operation was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in December 2010.
It was that slaying that launched a probe by National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea and independent journalist/blogger Mike Vanderboegh. Former CBS investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson and Fox News journalist William LaJeunesse also covered the scandal extensively, as did Gun Week, the predecessor of TGM.
Fast and Furious led to a series of Capitol Hill hearings before Congressman Darrell Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. None of the key people involved ever lost their jobs, but some retired, including acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson. Subpoenaed documents relating to the scandal were given executive privilege by President Barack Obama, leading to considerable speculation that the White House was somehow involved in the operation to flood Mexico with American-source firearms, thus justifying further record-keeping requirements on gun sales in four southwestern states.
In a statement to the Journal-Sentinel, Sensenbrenner noted, “By absorbing the ATF into existing law enforcement entities, we can preserve the areas where the ATF adds value for substantially less taxpayer money. While searching for its mission, the ATF has been plagued by decades of high-profile blunders….We cannot afford to ignore clear changes that will greatly enhance the government’s efficiency.”
