Why did ATF suddenly redefine firearm transfers?

[Matt Collins]

Why did ATF suddenly redefine firearm transfers?


http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/why-did-atf-suddenly-redefine-firearm-transfers

[Pericles]

The better quote was from here:

www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983197-4,00.html

"In 1980 the N.R.A. produced a film, It Can't Happen Here, in which Representative John Dingell of Michigan, then a member of the N.R.A.'s board of directors, states, "If I were to select a jackbooted group of fascists who are perhaps as large a danger to American society as I could pick today, I would pick BATF." (The bureau later shortened its logo to ATF.) The N.R.A.'s campaign was so effective that in 1981 President Reagan announced he would make good on a campaign promise to dismantle ATF. But he underestimated the depth of respect accorded the bureau among other law-enforcement agencies and was forced to backpedal. He announced later that he would still demolish ATF but assign its agents to the U.S. Secret Service. ATF agents, who saw the shift as conferring instant prestige, loved the idea; the N.R.A., however, realized it was about to lose one of its best fund-raising assets. Suddenly the N.R.A. rode to ATF's rescue, blocking its demise. The reversal drew an acid appraisal from New Jersey Representative William Hughes, who accused the association of retreating because the Secret Service "might actually take the functions seriously and not be so easy to intimidate."


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983197-4,00.html#ixzz0ywtYtg6k (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983197-4,00.html#ixzz0ywtYtg6k)

[Southron]

I sure wish we could get abolishing the ATF back into political discussion.