ATF Gun Confiscations Getting “Easier”
As the Washington Times reported, “The Obama administration is making it easier for bureaucrats to take away guns without offering the accused any realistic due process. In a final rule published [recently], the Justice Department granted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) authority to ‘seize and administratively forfeit property involved in controlled-substance abuses.'”
That may sound like property being seized from a convicted drug dealer. It's not. This gun confiscation and forfeiture (meaning, ATF can sell off the property after gun confiscations) occurs when ATF claims a crime has been ommitted in a case involving “controlled-substances.”
“That means government can grab firearms and other property from someone who has never been convicted or even charged with any crime.”
It is then up to the owner to prove that his or her property wasn't used in the commission of a drug crime.
“Law enforcement agencies love civil forfeiture because it's extremely lucrative,” the Times contended. “The Department of Justice's Assets Forfeiture Fund had $2.8 billion in booty in 2011, according to a January audit. Seizing guns from purported criminals is nothing new; Justice destroyed or kept 11,355 guns last year, returning just 396 to innocent owners. The new ATF rule undoubtedly is designed to ramp up the gun-grabbing because, as the rule justification claims, ‘The nexus between drug trafficking and firearm violence is well established.'”
Essentially, ATF now has an increased “profit motive” to initiate gun confiscations during its investigations. Of course, “Nowhere is there any recognition of the burden placed on innocent citizens stripped of their property or of the erosion of their civil liberties.”
What do you think about this news? Leave a comment below or click here to talk gun rights on GunForums.com.
Learn More About Gun Laws and Gun Rights from Massad Ayoob
All gun owners should be concerned about news like this, doubly so for those who practice concealed carry. They live those laws every day. Learn more about them in the second edition of Massad Ayoob's Gun Digest Book of Concealed Carry book.
Click here to order the Gun Digest Book of Concealed Carry from GunDigestStore.com for the best price.
Legal thievery, I don’t uphold, at all. That is what this would be, if they are selling or destroying firearms, or anything else, before someone is convicted.
If they are indeed found guilty, I have no problem with it, but the innocent, (which you’re supposed to be before any conviction), should never loose anything.
The only way to upturn this, is to lobby the senate, and have this portion of the ATF rules changed, or take it before the supreme court, and show where its unconstitutional to do this. This is another thing the NRA should sick its attorneys on.
This is no longer a free country! It hasn’t been for many years, and it is slowly sinking in to the average American. We need to demand our country back now! The authorities are out of control, they no longer represent us, only their own agendas. The police of all descriptions are not trustworthy. They act like uniformed thugs. I am angered at the repeated atrocities carried out by the police and the present authorities. I also don’t see Mitt Romney as anything better. We need Ron Paul as president, or someone like him. Someone with obvious brains who knows what the people of this country want deep down. Freedom from government interference, and no more involvement in other country’s problems. Other countries have the USA as an example, just copy it. It isn’t hard to do.
Last time I looked, there wasn’t a candidate who was going to do what is needed, running on either of the two major political platforms. Voting for one of them, will however prevent some further losses, we cannot afford.
It is not WWIII I am worried about, it is our 2nd civil war that worries me. With 0bama & Clinton in there without having the ability for a third term, Clinton has positioned the US to sign the UN small arms treaty thusly making it illegal for any US citizen to possess any firearm.
I also agree with usmcb10, but merely voting out this corrupt administration is not enough. This forfeiture scam has been going on for around twenty years, and guns have always been among the items seized. However, this action adds an agency with an agenda to the alphabet soup, which guarantees that it will become that much more odiferous, and dangerous to us.
The membership of the two mainstream parties, with a pathetically few shining exceptions, are all either dead from the neck up, or actively colluding to shred the Constitution, as they feed at the trough. With Obama, we will see a continued expansion of Socialism. With Romney, we will see only a stasis of the current Socialism, with a shift toward National Socialism. I refer you to this video for an accurate comparison of the two men:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWDJEc92d38
With either one, we will be sucked into WWIII, which has already started and in which we are being cast as the villain.
There is also the matter of an embedded bureaucracy, pampered and protected by the public employee unions, that usually get its way regardless of which party is in control.
We need to elect truly dedicated, moral, determined people who can and will reign in this bureaucracy, and take an axe to this out of control government. You won’t find them in the establishment parties. Three good choices for President are Ron Paul, Virgil Goode, and Gary Johnson. There are equally good candidates for Congress in most states. All that needs to happen is for enough Americans to stop letting the MSM’s talking heads frighten them into voting for one of the ‘officially’ anointed candidates, and instead vote their consciences (not on the ballot? Write in). Damn the fear mongering, let the chips fall where they will.
I don’t have much hope that this will happen. If it doesn’t, I suggest that we make sure our children learn Arabic, Spanish, and Mandarin, and that they become familiar with the Q’ran and Sharia law. Otherwise, they may be at a significant disadvantage in the new North American Union.
I agree with usmc10b. This is a critical election and this adminstration must be “kicked down the road”. I hate that phrase but think it is appropriate here. These elected officials need to be brought back to the reality that they work for the constituents back home and we the people are not their subjects.
This is what our country has come to, no rights under our Constitution even exist anymore. The government, the bureaucracy is so out of control. They no longer recognize our Constitution ,our Bill of Rights or any laws designed to protect the citizenry from our government. People have become so dejected and that many people I talk to say they will not even vote in the next election. Many people, like myself, have shed blood for this country. So people have the right to vote. Please vote in this next election. No other election in our lifetime has been so important. We have got to take back our country
The Patriot Act was the ‘coup de grace’ for the Constitution, making it a very interesting outdated piece of historical literature.