A Brief History of The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms

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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is a scandal-scarred agency with a storied past. It traces its history to Alexander Hamilton and the days of the Whiskey Rebellion. During Prohibition, detectives from its precursor agency, a division of the Treasury Department, went after bootleggers, moonshiners and cigarette smugglers. Eliot Ness, the famed Chicago crime fighter, was among the agents.

In modern times, the bureau, now housed in the Justice Department, has been concerned mostly with enforcing gun laws and regulating the gun industry, an unusual dual mission that has put it at odds with the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful lobbying forces in the capital. The bureau has botched some high-profile operations, like the deadly 1993 raid on the compound of the Branch Davidian cult near Waco, Tex., which prompted the N.R.A. to brand its agents "jackbooted thugs."

In 2006, its director faced accusations of lavish spending on his new office. Before he resigned, Congress decided that the Senate would confirm all future A.T.F. chiefs. Nobody has been confirmed, and the nation has been without a chief firearms inspector ever since.

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Conflicts With Congress, the N.R.A.

Defenders of the bureau, including former agents and gun control advocates, see things very differently than its critics. They see an agency that has resorted to operations like Fast and Furious because Congress, under the influence of the gun rights lobby, has left it weak and ineffective.

The Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986, for instance, banned the A.T.F. from conducting more than one unannounced inspection of a gun dealer per year, and made it tougher for the agency to revoke the licenses of dealers who break the law.

Congress has blocked the bureau from keeping a centralized computer database of gun transactions. Advocates say a database would make it easier to trace weapons, reducing the need for complex surveillance operations like Fast and Furious.

At the same time, the N.R.A. has fought hard against measures intended to limit the number of guns that can be bought at a single time.

Mr. LaPierre, of the rifle association, scoffs at the notion that he or his four million members are to blame for the A.T.F.'s troubles, calling it "preposterous nonsense." Yet even the agency's lack of a permanent director is caught up in the Washington debate over gun rights.

In 2006, while the last permanent director, Carl J. Truscott, was being investigated for his spending habits, the N.R.A. prodded Congress to require Senate confirmation for the job. Mr. LaPierre said his organization wanted "more light and more scrutiny" on the bureau. Michael Bouchard, a retired A.T.F. agent, says he was among a number of employees who warned against it.

"We said, 'We'll never get a director confirmed, even if it was the pope,' " Mr. Bouchard recalled.

Michael Sullivan, nominated by President George W. Bush in 2007, never won Senate approval and ran the agency in an acting capacity. Mr. Obama installed Mr. Melson as acting director in April 2009. In November 2010, the president nominated Andrew Traver, who runs the Chicago A.T.F. office and is opposed by the N.R.A. In July 2011, he had not yet had a hearing before the Judiciary Committee. A spokeswoman said at the time that the panel was still reviewing documents.

http://topics.nytime...arms/index.html

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

http://topics.nytime...arms/index.html

They are much nicer than USCIS I must say. I emailed them last week and they actually went and found my application and gave me a personalised response that they would try and complete it in the next week. I remember USCIS gave me form letter responses regarding an old expedite request, it took a lawyer to finally get them to process things.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Sousuke