Not just for the FBI

ATF gets in on it too except they botched it as the ATF is prone to do:

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) set up shop as a sting operation to attract illegal gun and drug dealers. It worked: 144 firearms were bought and confiscated, as were narcotics during 68 transactions. Thirty-one people were arrested.

Yet, the agencys Operation Fearless was enough of a mess that the Justice Departments Office of Inspector General (IG) was prompted to take a broad look at ATFs undercover storefront operations. For all the good the Milwaukee sting did, there were enough blunders to make Operation Feckless seem an appropriate label.

In a report issued last week, the IG examined similar stings in Pensacola, Fla.; St. Louis; Wichita; and Boston, in addition to Milwaukee. The conclusion is sharp.

The operations were marked by poor management, insufficient training and guidance to agents in the field, and a lax organizational culture that failed to place sufficient emphasis on risk management in these inherently sensitive operations, the IG office found. It was alerted to the problems following a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation into Operation Fearless.

They have an app so you can report tips anonymously:

To make our communities safer, ATF is launching a new way to collect your tips involving firearms or to provide leads to help us prevent crimes from happening. Using your phone, tablet or computer, you will be able to tell us instantly and anonymously about crimes that may be happening in your communities that involve firearms, explosives, violent crime, or arson.

Where is it ATF’s job to deal with violent crime? Sure, the other stuff falls under their purview. What about alcohol and tobacco crimes?

Senator Grassley:

For years, ATF has demonstrated a shocking lack of responsibility and judgment. We saw this with Operation Fast and Furious and again with Operation Fearless. This inspector general report confirms what weve long suspected: poor management and a loose organizational culture has led to completely avoidable failures in its undercover storefront operations. ATF has been tasked with an important responsibility of keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals. Its time that this organization gets serious about that duty. Our safety and our rights depend on it

So says The Daily Caller. This turns out to be about 1 in 3 gun dealers. Non-compliance with ATF regulations and paperwork is the most common reason a dealer is out of compliance. Checking the wrong box, I suppose.

Also, from that article, looks like ATF inspections are up since Obama took office.

Which could have greater handling requirements, making the manufacture of ammunition a bit more costly or impossible to make. Depending on who you read.

Interesting read on it at AmmoLand.

Mexico wants the US to reinstate the assault weapons ban and asked congress to do so. Did they think about asking congress to pass a law saying the ATF can’t smuggled guns into Mexico?

A man in Ohio was busted for having nearly 200 of them. He claims they were muzzle brakes. I wonder what they looked like?

Update: Thanks to Farm Dad, it likely is this:

Update 2: Ebay listing now gone. But was called See and See or some such.

Update 3: Screen grab:

ATF agent fakes cancer for sick leave pay while working another job.

Well, they also ran guns into Mexico. So, this doesn’t surprise me.

The GAO says the ATF is hoarding gun owners personal information. This is likely illegal:

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the go-to federal oversight agency, conducted an audit of ATF and found it does not remove certain identifiable information, despite the law explicitly mandating it do so. GAO conducted reviews for four data systems, and concluded at least two of ATFs systems violated official protocols.

CBS News:

In his first television interview, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Deputy Director, Head Thomas Brandon tells CBS’ “Sunday Morning” that the agency’s job is not to take away firearms from people, but to regulate weapons that can be misused.

“We’re a small agency with a big job,” Brandon tells correspondent Richard Schlesinger, in an interview to be broadcast Sunday, July 31.

Brandon also says his agency is hampered by not having the necessary technology. Congress has imposed constraints on ATF, such as prohibiting the agency from creating a computerized database of gun purchases.

On to an actual database:

Yet, Brandon says, not having the database hurts. Indeed, after the San Bernardino shootings, it took 12 hours to find out who owned the guns used in the attack. He says a computer database would have helped, and adds that not having one simply doesn’t make sense.

“There’s a lot of things that don’t make sense in this town, you know?” Brandon tells Schlesinger. “And, so, yeah, would it be efficient and effective? Absolutely. Would the taxpayers benefit with public safety? Absolutely. Are we allowed to do it? No.”

Yes, because government lists are such a great idea.

The ATF has some interesting data on NFA weapons:

ATF Rule 41F cometh

Per Judicial Watch. Phoenix, of course, being where ATF allowed gun sales to criminals with Operation Fast And Furious.

The scandal in Washington no one is talking about. Yeah, blogs have been talking about it for years.

Questionable Gun Store Bank Transactions Merit Congressional Inquiry of ATF

A NFA dealer had registered pipe bomb receivers, homemade claymores, and flamethrowers for sale at a local gun show to, basically, make fun of how silly gun laws are:

The Houston PD and ATF were not amused. But couldn’t do much about it.

A rundown on the changes right here. ATF would like you to know that, even if your state made it legal, it’s still a federal crime to smoke marijuana.

They reconfigured the can launcher so it’s not an SBR or DD.

The Obama administration turned over F&F documents, as ordered by a judge, the a house committee. This should get interesting. But will probably never make the news again.

The ATF is going around putting mystery boxes on utility poles to spy on people.

It’s not new news. But it’s being printed in the AP now:

The Associated Press reported this morning that a .50 BMG rifle found at Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s hideout in January was one of the ones sold through a straw purchase in Operation Fast and Furious.

A man who thinks anyone should be able to buy a gun posts a video on youtube saying he’ll buy guns for you for a price. Well, the ATF was not amused:

9Wants to Know learned ATF agents conducted an undercover buy with Francis, who bought guns at two sporting goods stores in the Denver area last month.

Court records show Francis has been indicted for making a false statement to a firearms dealer and for unlawful disposition of a firearm.

The Daily Signal:

In the second report, the inspector general concludes that while the ATF and Justice Department have implemented most of the recommendations the Inspector General made in 2012 to correct the serious management flaws he found at the ATF, the same cannot be said for the other law enforcement agencies within the Justice Department: the FBI, the U.S. Marshalls Service (USMS), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The inspector general made clear that his prior recommendations were intended not just to strengthen oversight of ATF, but to ensure that the mistakes that were made by ATF and the Department of Justice were not repeated at the other law enforcement divisions of DOJ.

El Chapo had a 50 caliber rifle that was smuggled into Mexico as part of fast and furious smuggling “investigation”.

A federal judge has rejected it:

A federal judge has rejected President Barack Obama’s assertion of executive privilege to deny Congress access to records pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious, a gunrunning probe that allegedly allowed thousands of weapons to flow across the border into Mexico.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled Tuesday that the Justice Department’s public disclosures about its response to the so-called “gun walking” controversy undercut Obama’s executive privilege claim.

…

Jackson said she wasn’t questioning the propriety of Obama’s claim of privilege, but ruling that the claim could not be sustained in view of other information the Justice Department had released on the topic, chiefly an Office of Inspector General report released in September 2012.

Details here. The TLDR version is no more chief law enforcement sign off but they must be notified.

First up, ATF:

I laughed hard. Up next, The White House lied:

"A violent felon can buy the exact same weapon over the internet with no background check, no questions asked." @POTUS #StopGunViolence

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 5, 2016

Yeah, not so much:

Zastava said it exported a gun with that serial number to Delray Beach, Florida-based Century Arms in 2013. According to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the gun was received by Century and eventually sent to a federal firearms licensee in the United States and purchased by an individual in February 2014. In March of this year it was recovered at a crime scene in Mexico and is still in the custody of Mexican officials, ATF said.

I wonder if it was a fast and furious gun?

ATF actually wastes my and your money to pay someone to run a facebook page. They posted this little infographic of TRUEFACTS on the page:

The comments there are full of people calling them out.