JPFO Alert: Abolishing ATF Might Undermine One of the Best Tools for Hobbling Federal Gun Laws

Today's JPFO Alert notes that disbanding the BATFE would be great--but not if their unconstitutional "duties" are simply transferred to a larger, more powerful group of the government's hired guns.

That description of the federal government's law enforcement resources as "stretched thin" is the key. The BATFE, as a far smaller agency than the FBI, will always be more subject to that "overstretching." It also has fewer friends in Congress who will fight for its budget. Without state and local law enforcement agencies to help them in their dirty work, a great deal of that dirty work will simply not get done, and the more their budget can be pared down, the more deeply will the BATFE feel the bite of that lack of cooperation. We can "starve the beast," especially this beast, as compared to any that would take over its role if the BATFE were to be abolished. The BATFE is an obscenity, and I want it gone, but first, I want the obscenities it exists to enforce abolished. Until that happens, let's leave those laws in the incompetent hands of the BATFE.