You bring up a good point about ATF agents not being as qualified as FBI agents. Well, then why can’t ATF agents that are brought into the FBI be raised to the same standards? If they don’t qualify, then they don’t become an agent. But the ATF is acting like its own mini FBI and that just doesn’t make any sense. We should be reducing the size of government, not increasing it. If the Treasury department needs its laws enforced, it can call in the FBI. Like you said, why should the Treasury department have its own heavily-armed agents with roughly the same powers as FBI agents? A Federal law is a Federal law, so if you break it, can’t the FBI arrest you as easily as ATF? They tried to streamline some of the Federal agencies when Homeland Security was created. I still think they didn’t go far enough. There are still too many Federal agencies doing essentially the same thing, arresting people who violate Federal laws.
