Will Obama’s Gun Package Include Bypassing Congress on ATF Director?
At noon tomorrow, President Obama is scheduled to unveil the slate of gun-control proposals recommended by Vice President Joe Biden, surrounded by “children from around the country who wrote the president letters in the wake of that tragedy expressing their concerns about gun violence and school safety.”
Those proposals are expected to run the gamut from executive actions that could be done without congressional approval to a legislative agenda that will urge a renewal of the long-dormant assault weapons ban, limits on the size of gun magazines, and more.
“Certainly, a significant part of what he hopes we together can achieve will have to be done working with Congress,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters today. “…The president will put forward a series of proposals that is not limited to one legislative action.”
But the president plans could also include a bit of executive pen-wielding to put his choice into the permanent leadership position at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
The ATF has been without a permanent director in six years. Acting Director B. Todd Jones is essentially a part-timer while he keeps his job as a U.S. Attorney in Minneapolis — since August 2011.
Before Jones began, the last acting director, Kenneth E. Melson, resigned in the fallout from Project Gunrunner.
But the administration’s take is that the rudderless chaos at the agency tasked with enforcing gun laws already on the books is clearly the fault of Congress.
“I think that it’s a simple fact that it’s been a very long time since the Senate has confirmed a head of the ATF. And it needs to act,” Carney said. “…Usually when there’s a case of nominations being held up and congressional inaction, the problem is often with Congress.”
Or, the problem could be Obama’s pick.
In late 2010, Obama tapped the head of the ATF’s Chicago office to lead the bureau. The nomination of Andrew Traver, now leading the Denver office, has been frozen ever since.
“Traver has been deeply aligned with gun-control advocates and anti-gun activities,” the National Rifle Association said at the time. “This makes him the wrong choice to lead an enforcement agency that has almost exclusive oversight and control over the firearms industry, its retailers and consumers.”
The NRA launched stoptraver.org and orchestrated a legislative push against the nomination.
“According to published reports, Traver is a Chicago political crony, hand-picked for this job by former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel — the Brady Campaign’s key ally during Bill Clinton’s eight-year war on our Second Amendment rights,” the NRA said in its action alert.
“An agency such as BATFE, that is involved in the regulation of a fundamental, individual right guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution, should not be led by an individual with a demonstrated hostility toward that freedom. ”
Unintended Consequences by John Ross. Everyone and anyone that cares about freedom should read it.
Just say NO! No to the radical left wing extremists that are going to try to put their thumbs on the constitution. And it’s not just the 2nd that is in danger. Obvious now that we need to contact more than the federal sens and reps. State and even county and govs as well. Demand they oppose these illegal actions by hussien. Contact your sheriffs and find out where they stand. If they are elected, let them know where your support lies and where it will lie in the next election. Disgusting that the “one” is using kids whose parents dictated their precious letters to hussein to push for the emotional support of people who are clueless about what the constitution and bill of rights is really about.
Carson City. Noon. Saturday 1/19.
Too bad, soooo sad. We won the election, now we get to call the shots. And the gloves have come off. You wouldn’t, couldn’t, refused to plan nice and compromise back into 2008, so now we run roughshod over you like the pesky bugs you are. oh, and by the way, Hillary 2016!
The problem goes deeper than most of these comments acknowledge. The entire issue of gun control is fraught with emotionalism on both sides. I began to write about it here, noting that Obama had skipped the only black child on the stage with him this morning (Jan.16, 2013). See http://clarespark.com/2013/01/16/gun-control-laws-quick-fixes-undoing. How we defend ourselves against external threats is of the utmost interest, but rarely understood.
For the record, you Democrat-Socialists won the White House, but not the House of Representatives. Until Obama shreds the Constitution entirely, we opponents of statism still have a partial voice.
You mean you STOLE the election.
And now is the time for the rest of us to do THIS.
Obama’s ‘proposals’,as described by news reports, sound very much like Senator Feinstein’s proposed legislation. So did Obama take Feinstein’s proposal and claim it as his own, or did Feinstein merely post Obama’s? Is this something that Obama has been ‘working on, under the radar’ for several years?
Were all these public events, discussions, meetings, consultations mere theater for something Obama had already written?
Obama was — before anyone thought he had a chance at national office — on the board of the Joyce Foundation, one of the “sugar daddy” slush piles that fund the anti-gun astroturf. They’re one of the groups that manages things like professionally printed anti-gun signs at rallies less than 24 hours after Newtown.
All of these Tyrannical Acts have been on the anti-gun nutcases’ wishlists for years. They were just waiting for the right bodies to dance on.
I remember a picture of a Palestinian terrorist proudly waving his hands to an adoring crowd — his hands slathered in the blood of an Israeli who had just been beaten to death. The anti-gunners are no different.
Rand Paul on Gun Control by Executive Order
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkrkwCltdHQ&feature=player_embedded
Choose Your Own Crime Stats!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooa98FHuaU0&feature=player_embedded
Rate of Killings Rises 38 Percent in Chicago in 2012: Daniel Borris for The New York Times Officers and onlookers at a crime scene on Chicago’s West Side. By MONICA DAVEY Published: June 25, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/us/rate-of-killings-rises-38-percent-in-chicago-in-12.html?pagewanted=all
This is the Chicago with some of the toughest restrictions in the states! Here is your sign!
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:–”I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Can someone please tell me what happened to Hilary testifying? You know… four dead Americans left hanging like so much laundry?
No doubt the 2nd Amendment as well as the 1st and 4th are important – but if you want to get rid of ‘O’, then we need to concentrate on learning the truth about Benghazi and prosecuting people responsible for the failure to respond and the cover-up. Hit this tyrant legally and dispose of him as prescribed by law and the other attacks on our beloved and sacred Constitution will disappear.
Just an update Andrew Traver. He is no longer Special Agent in Charge in Chicago. He is currently the SAC in Denver. While his nomination was never withdrawn, who knows if he is still in the running.
I don’t see how the Republicans can prevent Obama from doing whatever he is intended to do.
It looks like the entire country is totally hopeless and helpless in the face of this political blackmail and bullying.
Obama can do whatever he wants without any serious opposition in this country.
The Executive has NO authority to make or pass laws; no authority to circumvent congress with EO’s that are clearly in violation of the constitution; and the executive has NO authority even to write EO’s unless they are used for their intended purpose in times when there are clear crisis and congress is “out of town”, but even then, they cannot go against the constitution. In a nutshell; the executive is telling us that it will make laws that they cannot make and that they will pass laws that they cannot pass. This entire thing is a smokescreen. Carney, the press sec is deliberately lying to the press and media, faithfully mouthing the WH propaganda; and THAT’S what it is: BS. This POTUS WILL be presented with articles of impeachment if he steps over the line into extra-constitutional illegality; and he knows it.
Of course it will, Bridget.
We stand at the cusp.
Keep it hidden. Keep it safe.
Over one million babies were aborted last year – yet Obama claims he wants to protect and “save the children?” Thus he has to dismantle the 2nd Amendment to accomplish this?
This is a real lopsided picture, isn’t it? I have no doubt the man residing in the Oval Office hates America and loves to torment us with his abuse of powers.
Where are the republican leaders? Am I missing something? Is there a fear factor here that no one is telling us about?
Something very sinister is transpiring in this country, or am I dreaming?
Aborted babies aren’t cute enough to get those peon people disarmed and their wealth redistributed.
Constitution? What Constitution? Who needs it?
Never had all these crazies shooting until the colored muslim Obama was elected. I don’t doubt one minute he is behind them all of them not just fast and furious, not just Benghazi.
He rigged the election cheated and conned his way into the white house. Now he is secretly inciting mass shootings to accomplish two things.
First kill Americans, because he hates Americans and secondly disarm Americans because he hates Americans.
Needs to be stopped, anyway possible! He is the enemy!
…..surrounded by “children from around the country who wrote the president letters in the wake of that tragedy expressing their concerns about gun violence and school safety.”
Yeah, make emotional decisions based on stuff spouted by children in the wake of a tragedy. What a load of crap.
ObamaRx’s pick for ATF chief is just like every other department head he’s chosen. Lisa Jackson in particular was a known enviro-whacko, and President Downgrade put her in charge of environmental regulation, in an agency already riddled with radicalism.
I will believe that Obama wants to save lives caused by guns when he allows the prosecution of whoever was behind the Fast and Furious gunn running program and allows the prosecution of David Gregory, who knowingly violated the DC gun law.
Mayors against illegal guns held a protest rally here in Miami 2 years ago. The protest featured Debbie Wasserman Shultz and was the kick-off event for a national bus tour of protests in American cities. They were spreading awareness of the crisis of guns purchased in the US ending up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. That was the same day that a whistleblower in BATF exposed the story of Fast & Furious and Brian Terry’s death by F&F weapons.
The MAIG tour was promptly scrubbed and all the backers ran for the high grass before the connection could be discovered.
http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/html/media-center/cbs_miami_041811.shtml
Why doesn’t Obama just rule that, when using a gun in self-defense against an armed attacker, the person using the defensive gun must shoot the weapon (gun or otherwise)from the hand of the attacker?
Guns, therefore, wouldn’t have to hold more than a single round and fewer black kids in Chicago would die. How much easier could it get? Next problem!
Correct me if I’m wrong here, Jay, Bammie…but hasn’t the Senate been under Democrat control since you took office? If there’s a hold-up there, well, it would seem you’ve been ineffective in prodding them to confirm your nomination. I keep forgetting, though, that you’re above actually working, aren’t you?
Traver, like Obama, has ties to the anti-gun Joyce Foundation. He was also involved in an NBC story that intentionally confused viewers of the difference between automatic and semi-automatic weapons.
The current acting director of the ATF, B. Todd Jones, issued a video message to all department employees in which he stated, “if you make poor choices, that if you don’t abide by the rules, that if you don’t respect the chain of command, if you don’t find the appropriate way to raise your concerns to your leadership, there will be consequences…” That message was a threat to Operation Fast and Furious whistleblowers. Jones is a longtime pal of Attorney General Eric Holder, with whom he worked when Holder orchestrated the whitewash of the Waco, Texas massacre of innocent civilians. Jones was also involved in Operation Fast and Furious from the beginning.
There isn’t an ATF chief because the Republicans use the filibuster to block nominations. Typical. You guys cause problems and then complain because of their consequences. The Fast and Furious scandal (or non scandal) was another case in point. The fundamental reason the ATF didn’t block the transfer of guns was because the NRA has thoroughly tied their hands—the ATF attorneys concluded that they couldn’t arrest anybody because our laughable gun laws protect gun runners. In general, things go better when a large part of the political nation isn’t determined to make them worse.
By the way, you guys do know that there is a new cloud on the horizon for the 2nd Amendment? It seems that people are noticing that the reason we got a 2nd amendment in the first place was to ensure that the Feds couldn’t interfere with slave patrols in Southern states. It was the reverse of a measure intended to protect liberty. Apparently lots of founding fathers are on the record as to the real purpose and meaning of the amendment. If the true history of the Amendment becomes common knowledge, it will make it more difficult for you to treat it as some sort of holy writ. It’s more like the 3/5ths rule, i.e., one the embarrassing things about the Constitution that we ought to get past.
Please don’t waste your time and energy on the likes of Jim Hitlerson. He has venomous opinions on every topic, even ones he knows nothing about. He is simply too ignorant to understand how ignorant he is. However, he thinks he knows everything about everything and thinks he has the solution to all of the world’s problems. The guy is what Thomas Sowell might call a self-anointed messiah. He believes that civilized and successful people and countries are intrinsically evil and he has a vicious hatred of Jews and Israel. His posts are often incoherent ramblings. He evades questions, he tells outright lies and he throws tantrums. Please don’t waste your time and energy on this immature, malignant, narcissistic, attention-starved, anti-Semitic demagogue.
I saw a link to this article, in the New Republic, was it? Post a link next time.
Here’s the article Jim:
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13890-the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery
BTW, I have a personal angle on this story, in the person of my great-great-grandpa, a (minor) slaveholder, who went west with the opening of the Nebraska Territory in the 1850′s, and some compatriots (also slaveholders), founded Nebraska City, some miles downriver from Omaha. When a couple of his slaves (ack, am I really saying this?) ran off, he chased them to Illinois where he was cornered by some townspeople. He holed up in a barn (kinda like Butch Cassidy). Apparently they let him go when he threw out his handgun.
In the article is says: “President George W. Bush also had an ATF nominee, Michael J. Sullivan, whose confirmation was blocked over concerns from a gun dealer.”
What was the objection to Mr Sullivan? How can the objection of a single gun dealer derail a Presidential appointment? Enlighten me, please!!