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How many more crimes will be created tomorrow that aren’t crimes today for the ATF to enforce? How many more budget increases will be granted before the “F” in ATF is completely defunded?

9-16-09 - In my last commentary, “Get the F out of ATF,” I ended it with a statement that it was an abomination that taxpayers spend $800,000,000 a year to fund a government agency whose mission is contrary to our Constitution.

The ATF has a mission to enforce laws of which well over 95% didn’t even exist 42 years ago.

The ATF exists only because politicians thought it necessary to restrict citizens’ access to firearms. Otherwise, there would be no law enforcement agency called BATFE. Instead, it would be called BATE.

But let’s go through this again so it is clearly understood. In 1967 we didn’t have problems selling firearms across state lines. If you, living in California, wanted to buy a rifle from Joe’s gun shop in Dallas that you found in Shotgun News, you called them on the phone, sent them a check, or gave them your credit card information, and a few days later it would arrive at your home. Today, moving a firearm without the proper documentation or credentials across state lines will be cause for spending some time behind bars.

Let’s take a look at one of the simplest, and not surprisingly, one of the dumbest gun laws of the entire spectrum of laws implemented in the last 42 years. Let’s look at the 4473 DROS form. DROS stands for Dealers Record of Sale. If a 4473 DROS form is not filled out when a dealer makes a sale, and I might add, recording the information precisely as prescribed by law, it is an illegal sale.

Now I ask a question of you prudent citizen. Who cares if there is a law requiring a 4473 DROS form? Do I care? No. Do you care? Probably not. Does the dealer care? The dealer only cares because if it isn’t filled out properly or omitted, he could lose his license, be cited, prosecuted, fined or even jailed if its chronic. In other words if he doesn’t have a 4473 DROS filled out and put into the dealer’s filing cabinet, he could be in trouble when the ATF comes looking for it. Do I still care? No I don’t. Do you care if the dealer has it filled out and puts it into his filing cabinet? Probably not. But the ATF cares.

They care because politicians told them they were going to require the dealer to fill out a 4473 DROS for each firearm transfer and make them put it into a filing cabinet. And, the job of the ATF is to make sure the dealer filled it out accurately and filed it. If you didn’t understand this process and the requirements, I can understand if you have been nervous all these years about firearm sales. But, I’m sure, like thousands of others who are now reading this, you feel much safer knowing that your DROS form is resting peacefully in a filing cabinet at your local gun dealer. I know I can sleep at night. Now you can too.

But seriously, I ask you again. If no one cares other than politicians and the ATF, why is it a law? Why should there be an agency designated with the duty to make sure the 4473 DROS form has been filled out and placed in the dealer’s filing cabinet? Well, let me tell you what the politicians who created this law said it would do. It will reduce crime. Now, don’t you feel completely stupid and inadequate? Think of all the lives that have been saved because of it. Even if it was just one life, isn’t it worth it? Again, I digress and find myself getting caught up in the moment.

You see, the 4473 DROS form is what I like to refer to as a government initiated “hoop jumping” session. This is the process by which the government makes you and the dealer jump through hoops like trained dogs in belief that if you jump hard enough and high enough, that crime will be deterred.

None of it, not a single law on the books has done anything to reduce crime rates. Not a thing. And, I challenge anyone to prove otherwise with hard cold data, not B.S. I’ve got enough B.S. in me. I don’t need your B.S. So don’t give me more B.S., just prove it. The facts are NO ONE will prove otherwise. No one from the Brady Bunch, no one from the ATF and no one from the federal government can prove it. No one will prove it.

You see, I can make that statement because all I have to do is show you the FBI’s Uniform Crime Statistics for the last century. You know what we will see? We’ll see the official scoreboard baby. And the official scoreboard shows nothing other than a big jump in violent crime starting in the late sixties and remaining well above historical levels for the last 42 years. All this nonsense passed down year after year, gun bill after gun bill, with the continuing promise of reducing crime, has in fact done nothing reduce violent crime rates.

This is why some Americans despise the “F” in ATF and the politicians who promote it, fund it, and promulgate its existence. We have been duped by politicians for over 40 years that gun control will reduce crime. They have continually lied, deceived and stretched the truth, but they have not dealt straight with the American people on this issue. With all the Republican rhetoric and grandstanding about reigning in the ATF’s budget because of their “heavy-handed” tactics against the American people, the ATF’s budget increases each and every year by millions. They have done nothing to restrain the growth of the ATF. Democrats and Republicans are both to blame. None are innocent in this.

How long and how many times will we be made to look stupid by politicians on this issue? How many more crimes will be created tomorrow that aren’t crimes today for the ATF to enforce? How many more budget increases will be granted before the “F” in ATF is completely defunded? How many more times are gun owners going to be sucker-punched into believing that some gun laws are a good thing? Let me be the first to pop your bubble. There is no such thing as a good gun law! They’re all bad and they all encroach on the rights of those with no intent of committing a crime.

We will continue this discussion in my next commentary. Go To Part III