The Daily News
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms got its first permanent director since 2006 Wednesday, when the Senate confirmed B. Todd Jones, by a hair.
It was supposed to be easier. The White House and gun control groups had made an issue of the agency’s lack of a permanent boss. President Obama listed confirming an ATF chief as one of his high-profile gun control priorities in January.
On the other side of the ledger, the National Rifle Association, whose hostility to the mission of the ATF Democrats blame for the longstanding failure to give the agency more than an interim boss, declined to fight Jones.
An agency that shouldn't even exist now has a full-time boss. You expect me to cheer?
ReplyDeleteMany of the ATF's issues are self-inflicted. The laws limiting ATF's enforcement actions on FFL's came about as a result of abuses of power against the FFL's. Then of course, more recently "Wide Receiver" and "Fast and Furious" which has resulted in deaths of law enforcement officers on both sides of the border.
ReplyDeleteJones actually appeared in an internal video which appeared to be a thinly veiled threat to whistle blowers and of course there were several iterations of clarification needed to correct the "misunderstanding". So Jones has given the perception of being the status quo in the ATF administration that seems unwilling to take responsibility for bad decisions. This has been supported by the current administration.
There has been talk of wanting to merge the ATF with the FBI, though I'm not sure if the FBI would be happy about that since they actually have a reputation that could be potentially sullied by the ATF's antics.
Given the whistleblower video, the fact that Jones is just the latest appointee by an administration that has gone above and beyond when it comes to attacking whistleblowers, and the fact that, as interim director, Jones hasn't done anything to stop the ongoing mistreatment of some whistleblowers, you'll have to pardon me if I don't stand and cheer.
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