Alec Hamilton, Assistant Producer, WNYC News
Alec Hamilton is an Assistant Producer in the WNYC newsroom. She produces Morning Edition and starts her work day very, very early.
Lack of Leadership, Influence of Gun Lobby Hamper ATF Gun Efforts
Thursday, December 27, 2012 - 11:50 AM
The government agency charged with regulating the gun trade continues to lack a leader, despite the rash of recent shootings in the country.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, has had no permanent director for six years.
Jerry Nunziato is the former head of the ATF's National Tracing Center and was an ATF special agent for 29 years. Speaking on the Takeaway on Thursday, Nunziato said that’s in large part because of the influence of the gun lobby in Congress and the agency.
"Any time we wanted to make a change at the tracing center, to say computerize multiple sales records, we had to run it by the gun lobbyists to see if they would interfere with us in Congress."
Nominees for the job have not been able to get confirmed by the Senate in both the Obama and Bush administrations.
In the wake of the Newtown shooting, President Obama called on Congress to confirm his nominee for the job at the start of the new year.
Comments [4]
"Lack of Leadership, Influence of Gun Lobby Hamper ATF Gun Efforts"
Awww, the poor terrorist organization called the "BATF(E)" is sooooo bullied by the "gun lobby".
Give me a break MSM writers!
Why would anyone trust an organization that can't stand the light of day. Their own members have risen to excoriate them. They were created to harass and intimidate "We the People"
Oh Yeah... then you have the Obummer administration helping out the Lybians and allowing them to size 15000 stinger surface to air missiles-hand held I must say, he sold 3 billion dollars worth of arms to Egypt and assisted the Muslim Brotherhood in seizing M1 Abrams Tanks and F16s when they took over. Syria is the same and the Bengazi FUBAR was about running guns into Syria to assist the Rebels there. Yep this bunch is really serious about gun control here when it involves the citizens of the US and not some Jihadist bunch of terrorists.
Truth be know the 1968 gun control act was a reprint of the German Model so well known from Hitler. Legislator named Dodd brought the document back from Germany and directed the government printing office to translate it and adopt it into a bill. NFS, look it up if you wish. We are not paranoid because paranoia is an "unreasonable fear". Ain't nothing unreasonable about fearing a tyrannical government
Maybe if the BATFE hadn't just spent several years illegally arming local gangs in CONUS, as well as the drug cartels in Mexico and South America , we might trust them. As it stands now, there will never be trust of the BATFE with US citizens.
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