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BATFE house-cleaning needed
The Associated Press reports that the BATFE lost 76 weapons and hundreds of laptops over five years.
Remember, this is the same agency that has been attempting to lift gun dealers' licenses over such minutiae as (a) how the name of a city or state is abbreviated in paperwork, or (b) whether an applicant for a NICS background check writes out the words "yes" and "no" in response to the questions on the federal form 4473. (Simply writing "Y" or "N" is considered a violation of the rules on the part of the gun dealer.)
Thirty-five of the missing handguns, rifles, Tasers and other weapons were stolen, as were 50 laptops, the internal audit found. Two of the stolen weapons were used in crimes.
A Justice Department official observed that ATF's rate of loss for weapons was nearly double that of the FBI and DEA, and that ATF did not even know whether most of its lost, stolen, or missing laptop computers contained sensitive or classified information.
The audit revealed that ATF lost three times more weapons each month than it had in a similar 2002 audit by the Treasury Department, which used to oversee the agency. It also lost 50 times as many laptops as reported in the earlier audit.
Worst of all, ATF employees did not report 13 of the 76 lost weapons, or 365 of the 418 missing laptops, to internal affairs as required.
You might also recall that many cities and states have enacted laws that make it a felony to fail to report a lost or stolen firearm within a short period of its disappearance.
The bottom line is that these guys are unwilling to play by the same rules that they enforce so ferociously upon the rest of us.
This is one more reason why Congress and the President need to abolish the BATFE, a powerful and expensive agency that is not authorized by our Constitution.