Category: Guns

Over at Red’s Trading Post. I don’t want anyone taking my previous post as meaning I’m giving up on reigning in ATF. I think that’s one of the most important battles to focus on right now. But reality is we’re unlikely to get reform from any Bush nominee at this point.

I’m in favor of seeking Congressional action to either abolish the ATF, or strip it of much of the power it’s been abusing. The former is probably not achievable, but I think the latter is.

I don’t want to discourage anyone from writing their senators and opposing the nomination. They should hear from you. You too can be a proud recipient of Senator Casey’s form letter!

Remember folks, to write your state representatives about the Castle Doctrine Bill coming up.   Here’s mine:

Representative [Find Yours Here],

I am disappointed that HB 641, the Castle Doctrine Bill, did not get a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee as was originally scheduled for today.  I am told that the bill’s sponsor, Representative Cappelli, plans to introduce it as an amendment onto Senate Bill 436, which is currently before the House.

I would very much appreciate your support of Rep. Cappelli’s amendment, and the final bill, when it comes up for a vote.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Hopefully we can get this bill on Rendell’s desk.

Like a lot of our pro-gun leaders, I definitely don’t have any special affection for Michael Sullivan as director of the ATF. It doesn’t look to me like he’s done much to reform the agency, and I’m not sure he’s the ideal person to have that position. I’d definitely like someone hell bent on reforming the culture there, at all costs, but I doubt you’re ever going to get that out of Bush, who I think has given up on fighting his federal bureaucracies.

In my tradition not hesitating to challenge conventional wisdom on our side, I’m going to stir the pot here a little and suggest that expending time, energy and money in an attempt to defeat Mike Sullivan isn’t really going to accomplish anything. One thing I’ve learned from reading and talking to Dave Hardy, who has a lot of experience working in a federal bureaucracy, is just how little control the political appointees really have over a large agency like ATF. The bureaucracy will do everything it can to conceal facts, and the truth from the people the President appoints to run the agencies, to the point where it’s difficult to even know what needs to be reformed and where there are problems that need addressing.

We could expend a lot of energy, time and money, which are all limited resources, in a mad effort to defeat Mike Sullivan, which will cause Bush to appoint another appointee, who will likely have similar qualities, and also will have little ability or incentive to reform the agency. And that’s if we win. I think our chances of winning on this are virtually zero, because the Republicans aren’t going ot want to deny the president his nominee, and the Democrats aren’t going to scuttle a nominee unless it benefits them politically, which it doesn’t in this case.

So I’m going to put the onus on those of you who are demanding action. Why is this worth pulling out all the stops for? I’m willing to be convinced. But right now I think our energy is best spent making sure pro-gun candidates get elected in the primaries, and in 2008. Getting more pro-gun candidates elected puts us in a better position to push measures through Congress to strip ATF of the powers its been abusing. As much as I think it would be nice to get a real reformer in ATF, I don’t think you’re getting that out of Bush.

UPDATE: Well, it’s not an outright defeat of Sullivan, but I think Senator Craig and Senator Crapo just convinced me that maybe I shouldn’t be too quick to question the value of something that motivates enough grass roots to get this kind of action. Pretty clearly my mistake was not seeing that it could prompt action less than outright defeat of Sullivan, but still something that moved the issue forward. Pretty clearly I was wrong.