ATF Director Resigns After Disastrous Attempt at Ammo Ban

Everything about the Obama administration always works so smoothly and works out so well:

The first Senate-confirmed director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is leaving the post after less than two years, the agency announced Friday. B. Todd Jones’ resignation is effective March 31. After that, Deputy Director Thomas Brandon will become acting director.

“I will truly miss leading and working side-by-side with these men and women in their pursuit of ATF’s unique law enforcement and regulatory mission,” Jones said in a statement Friday. President Barack Obama nominated Jones in January 2013, and he was approved by the Senate about six months later.

Interesting timing regarding Jones’s appointment:

Jones was nominated to the post in the aftermath of the December 2012 mass shooting at a Connecticut school where 26 people, including 20 children, were killed. The appointment was part of the Obama administration’s efforts to push for tougher gun control laws. Multiple bills failed in Congress, but Jones’ approval was considered a rare victory in the gun control debate.

Under Jones’ tenure, the agency faced renewed criticism about its investigative tactics, including the use of so-called storefront and sting operations to pursue violent criminals. Most recently, the agency came under fire for proposing the elimination of an exemption that allowed the sale and manufacture of certain types of bullets, used in the popular AR-15-style rifles, that could pierce a police officer’s protective vest when fired from a handgun.

In other words, Jones was appointed, in classic Obama fashion, not to protect the constitutional rights of the American public or even get to the bottom of the “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal, but to go around the Constitution and impose “gun control” via bureaucratic methods. What a surprise.

The proposed change would have effectively outlawed “M855 green tip” or “SS109” rounds with certain types of metal core projectiles. Most of the more than 310,000 public comments about the proposal were critical of the plan, and nearly 300 members of Congress — majorities in both the House and Senate — also complained. The effort was abandoned earlier this month.

Remember: they never stop, they never sleep, they never quit. Don’t expect the new guy to be much better.