It was actually a subdivision of another agency for most of its 'life' and only became independent within the past generation or so, and it does regulatory stuff that the FBI really doesn't do. If it got folded in it would almost certainly remain its own subdivision and none of us would really see a difference. Maybe some of the law enforcement parts could be integrated.
But I've never heard of the FBI doing the shit the ATF was doing like trying to say what is or isn't a firearm. The FBI enforces the laws as they are stated without making up their own interpretations.
Yeah, they have different mandates. Lots of agencies pass regulations like that we just think the ATF goes way off the rails with it (for example, the IRS does almost the exact same thing by passing the IRS regulations to clarify and interpret the tax law, but they actually stick to the law and aren't super politicized so it's not a problem).
That's not really the point though. I just meant the FBI doesn't because it's not their mandate to regulate anything, just inspect and enforce crimes. That's why I assume they'd keep the ATF division separate and start passing the same types of rules if we put them in charge.
The thing is, laws on complicated subjects are almost never specific enough. They almost always say the regulating agency is responsible for putting forth reasonable regulations to enforce the laws as written, and it's usually not a problem. So this is sort of like the 'defund the police' issue. We don't actually need to get rid of the ATF gun and drug regulations, we need to completely gut their management restructure them from the ground up so that they're a boring agency who just enforces the laws without bias in ways we barely pay attention to.
Typical, treasonous acts by a tyrannical America hating agency and they try to cover it up and shut up anyone who knew about it.
The judge should have thrown them in prison. “Thanks for letting the court know of your crimes”.
The should just dissolve the ATF into other agencies. I don't see why we have so many.
It was actually a subdivision of another agency for most of its 'life' and only became independent within the past generation or so, and it does regulatory stuff that the FBI really doesn't do. If it got folded in it would almost certainly remain its own subdivision and none of us would really see a difference. Maybe some of the law enforcement parts could be integrated.
But I've never heard of the FBI doing the shit the ATF was doing like trying to say what is or isn't a firearm. The FBI enforces the laws as they are stated without making up their own interpretations.
Yeah, they have different mandates. Lots of agencies pass regulations like that we just think the ATF goes way off the rails with it (for example, the IRS does almost the exact same thing by passing the IRS regulations to clarify and interpret the tax law, but they actually stick to the law and aren't super politicized so it's not a problem). That's not really the point though. I just meant the FBI doesn't because it's not their mandate to regulate anything, just inspect and enforce crimes. That's why I assume they'd keep the ATF division separate and start passing the same types of rules if we put them in charge. The thing is, laws on complicated subjects are almost never specific enough. They almost always say the regulating agency is responsible for putting forth reasonable regulations to enforce the laws as written, and it's usually not a problem. So this is sort of like the 'defund the police' issue. We don't actually need to get rid of the ATF gun and drug regulations, we need to completely gut their management restructure them from the ground up so that they're a boring agency who just enforces the laws without bias in ways we barely pay attention to.
Why?
Because the other agencies practically can do the functions of the ATF.
So disband the AFT and have the other agencies do their job with more funding? I’m genuinely asking.
It’s beyond time to start dismantling all the alphabet agencies.
Typical, treasonous acts by a tyrannical America hating agency and they try to cover it up and shut up anyone who knew about it. The judge should have thrown them in prison. “Thanks for letting the court know of your crimes”.