Guntards.net

BATFE director to Bloomberg: "Go pound sand!"

Posted by simonov on 1 May 2007

Michael J. Sullivan, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), recently took a swipe at Michael Bloomberg’s continuing efforts to get confidential firearms trace data released for use in government funded civil lawsuits. At one point, he calls Bloomberg a liar when he says:

Let me be clear: neither the congressional language nor ATF rules prohibit the sharing of trace data with law enforcement conducting criminal investigations, or place any restrictions on the sharing of trace data with other jurisdictions once it is in the hands of state or local law enforcement.

Now, for the record, we guntards are, as a rule, skeptical of any utterances by Bush appointees like Sullivan. But one thing we already know about Bloomberg is he’s a serial liar with grandiose political aspirations. And he inhaled! At least Sullivan was a DA and a Federal prosecutor before his appointment, rather than director of the American Quarter Horse Association.

What, you may ask, has Bloomberg been up to? I’ll allow Chuck Canterbury, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, to explain. Among other issues, Canterbury notes:

In media reports last year, law enforcement sources cited that as many as four cases were compromised and an additional 14 were put at risk by private investigators employed by New York City who acted on the basis of trace data.

Broadly, Canterbury believes it is the job of law enforcement – cops and prosecutors – to enforce firearms laws, and not the role of Dog the Bounty Hunter wannabes contracting for municipal paychecks at the behest of publicity-mad city politicians.

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