September 17, 2008

 

"...Our audit examined ATF's actions in response to lost, stolen, or

    missing weapons, laptop computers, ammunition, and explosives,

    and whether ATF followed current DOJ procedures after weapons or

    laptop computers were lost, stolen, or missing. We also queried the

    National Crime Information Center (NCIC) to identify lost, stolen, or

    missing ATF weapons and laptop computers that were recovered or

    weapons used in the commission of a crime. We also examined whether

    national security or investigative information may have been contained

    on ATF lost laptop computers.

 

    In addition, we reviewed ATF's internal controls over accountable

    property, it's exit procedures for departing employees, and its

    disposal of property. Our review included a physical verification of

    a sample of weapons and laptop computers. We also tested the

    accuracy and completeness of the property records, and we

    reviewed controls over ammunition and explosives to determine

    whether ATF stores and properly accounts for this property.

    Appendix I contains a further description of our audit objectives,

    scope, and methodology.

 

    OIG Results in Brief

 

    Over the 59-month period we tested, 76 weapons and 418 laptop

    computers were lost, stolen, or missing from ATF. ATF's rate of

    weapons loss per month has nearly tripled since Treasury's 2002

    audit, and the rate of loss per month for laptop computers was 50

    times higher than what the 2002 audit revealed. According to

    ATF officials, the much higher rate of laptop computer losses

    resulted primarily from adjustments ATF made to its inventory

    records to correct inaccurate data accumulated over several years.

 

    We also found serious deficiencies in ATF's response to these lost,

    stolen, or missing items. ATF staff did not report many of the lost,

    stolen, or missing weapons and laptop computers to ATF's Internal

    Affairs Division (Internal Affairs), as required by ATF's property

    management policies. In addition, ATF did not report most of the

    missing laptop computers to ATF Internal Affairs for investigation.

    We also found that ATF staff did not enter 5 lost, stolen, or missing

    weapons into NCIC and did not document what data was contained

    in 398 of the 418 lost, stolen, or missing laptop computers.

    Consequently, ATF could not provide assurance that these computers

    did not contain sensitive information, personally identifiable information,

    (PII), or classified information. Because ATF did not begin to install

     encryption software on its laptop computers until May 2007, few if any

     of the laptop computers lost, stolen, or missing during our review

     period were protected..."

 

                                        - Excerpt from Audit Report 09-29, the US

                                          Department of Justice Office of Inspector

                                          General Audit Division's report on deficiencies

                                          in the ATF's firearms traceability and

                                          firearms owner privacy protection practices

 

 

 

To All,

    Talk about smoking guns....

 

 

Some 'Splainin To Do:

     It's been a bit hard here on the Left Coast to watch a number of firearms dealers get their Federal Firearms Licenses revoked over what some would call minor book-keeping errors and alleged failures of the licensee to make sure criminals could not receive firearms despite the back-round check process.

 

    Add to that "1-gun-per-month" rules for handguns sales, safe storage requirements and expanded liabilities, and demands by local ATF offices for 24/7 clerical monitoring of all inventory and Forms 4473, and it's a wonder that Federal Licensees can stay in business at all.

 

    But imagine the chagrin when one finds out that, internally, ATF describes "1-gun-per-month" as roughly the loss of issue firearms doled out to agents without a clue (Actually, it's closer to 1.25 guns per month...). Add to this the likelihood that these are concealable firearms, and one's anger quotient starts increasing exponentially.

 

    What is even more alarming is that ATF is losing laptops like there is no tomorrow. And it is totally uncertain at this time as to how many of these may have had transcribed personal data from 4473's being reviewed in any one ATF agent's case work.

 

     NRA and it's vast support base of firearms activists-cum-highly-likely-voters has been concerned for aeons about privacy issues revolving around firearms transaction documents. Imagine if an agent had reviewed and transcribed the personal data from only ten 4473's per work day, and nefarious parties were able to obtain that information, how much at risk those owners would be at.

 

    NRA and it's firearms activist base is also aware and concerned that the "Holy Grail" of the Garen Wintemutes out there is to obtain real-time firearms registration data by any means necessary, so as to lend aid and comfort to a host of statistical "studies" as to liability of firearms owners nationwide.

 

    Add to that a certain anger over the implied double standard of Chuckles Schumer's favorite bureaucracy being able to get away with the old adage "Good Enough For Government Work". After all, they apply a supremely stricter standard on licensees and firearms owners on a daily basis. One now gets the idea that a major revamp of the ATF is in dire need.

 

     Unfortunately, we are deep in in a Presidential election season where the possibility of Congressional hearings is most unlikely. What is more, there is no chance for legislation to wend it's way through the required process before next year. It may just be that it will take a "reform" government to cut through the bureaucratic CYA on this scandal. The problem is, candidates from one of the major so-called "reform" tickets has worked hand-in-glove with the antigun movement for years. Gunowners will need to cut past the teleprompter-generated platititudes, and assure themselves that the next Administration will reform a hypocritical ATF with the privacy rights and concerns of gunowners in mind. Otherwise, we're screwed.

 

Link at:

http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/ATF/a0829/final.pdf

 

 

Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires:

     Observant firearms activists have pointed out the recent story in the Mariposa Gazette about criminal charges being fired in the aftermath of the Telegraph Fire that burned near Yosemite National Park back in August.

 

     Mariposa County DA Bob Brown has filed negligence charges, as well as misdemeanor possession of unregistered assault rifles, on Davin Craig Mosher of Merced. The Gazette reports that Mosher faces up to 18 months in county jail if convicted.

 

     The negligence charges appear to be around the alleged "knowing" use of ammunition containing steel while Mosher was doing some target shooting on BLM land (The Gazette reports that it is lawful to target shoot in the area that Mosher was shooting.). Mosher denies knowing that the ammunition that he was using was either steel core or steel jacket, which DA Brown claims was the apparent cause of the Telegraph fire.

 

     While one cannot comment on the particular merits, or lack thereof, of Mosher's particular case, one can point out an interesting trend of late.

 

     In the Gazette article, DA Brown speaks on the subject of steel ammunition:

 

     "...'Steel-jacketed ammunition will start fires,' Brown warned. He said

       the real danger is that most of this kind of ammunition looks like

       regular copper-jacketed ammunition, making it difficult to tell

       that steel is below the copper layer. The only way to know is to test

       it with a magnet or cut into the copper layer. ' Do not be fooled just

       because your ammunition appears to have copper jackets', Brown

       said. ' The appearance is deceiving..."

 

   It's true that a number of ranges in California ban steel ammo of all types as part of their fire control measures enacted in cooperation of any one of a number of governmental agencies. Steel projectiles shot near flammable cover or equipment is a potential fire hazard.

 

   But why is it then that Tejon Ranch, under duress from the Fish & Wildlife Service and various environmental groups, has instituting a steel shot requirement when one hunts upland game in "condor country"? And why is it that the NRDC and other environmental groups are in Federal Court currently trying to get a Tejon Ranch-style regulation on ammunition imposed on the entire state, when they know that steel ammunition poses a well-known fire-hazard? What kind of land managers do we have here, anyway?

 

     Perhaps there is a convincing argument that fire is a "useful natural process" in maintaining the environment. But one can also make the argument that once-in-a-lifetime fires that burn precious natural habitat to the point of relative sterility is a poor land management policy to allow to continue for long. Perhaps any policies that require the use of steel ammunition in a way that could pose increased risk of fire hazard should be triple and quadruple-checked before some bureaucratic appointee fricassees a red-legged frog, California Condor, or billions of dollars in land and real estate holdings into uselessness. Stay tuned.

 

Link at:

http://www.mariposagazette.com/news/contentview.asp?c=247396

 

 

 

The Man With The Red Pencil:

     Evan Halper and Jordan Rau write at the Los Angeles Times about Governor Schwarzenegger's promise to veto the current "Shell Game" budget deal being proposed by the Kooks in the Capitol.

 

     Said budget would allegedly shore up funding gaps approaching $ 15.9 billion dollars by "cutting" probable increases (the old baseline budgeting scam) while doing away with business tax deductions on certain businesses as well as escalating income tax withholding 10% across the boards just as soon as enabling legislation is passed.

 

      Happily, the Governor knows manure when he smells it, at least in this case. But in a massive display of oligarchic disdain for reality, the Legislature is advising Governor Arnold to bend over and take it, rather than hold up the business of the Three Ring Circus that the Capitol in Sacramento has become.

 

     In one case, Assemblyman Chuck Calderon (D- Montebello) practically "chooses off" the Governor by implying that vetoing bills without consideration for purported merits of each bill is "politically immature". What is more, Calderon hints that Arnold's "agenda" would be dead if he were to start vetoing bills on strong principle only.

 

   The problem with Calderon's position lies in that little gift on the Governor's Desk. It's called the line item veto pencil.

 

    Face it, if the Legislature decides to "86" the Governor's agenda and present him "veto bait" without restraint, then the Governor has nothing to gain by cutting deals the Liberal Leadership would want to impose on the Body Politic.

 

    In turn, a Governor left to his own devices might begin to look for real solutions in the "reform" wave that is currently moving across the land. Borrowing from the McCain/Palin OPFOR, Arnold could start whittling away at whatever chicharrones that Calderon and other earmarkers have larded the budget with, and start showing the public the true benefits of the  Audacity of Balanced Budgeting.

 

    Face it Assemblyman Calderon, Arnold Unrestrained has the last word on all expenditures (What Senator Perata would presumably define as the Real Issue of Import, not a phoney-baloney budget designed to save phoney-baloney political sinecures). And in each and every line item veto "explanation", the Governor could explain who it's sponsor was and why expenditures on some picayune special interest beats fixing roads, bridges, and paying for law enforcement and fire services. Talk about "Bridges To Nowhere".

 

     It's well known that the down side of term limits has resulted in a passel of legislators without a sense of future responsibility for the results of the legislative construction projects they enact. There is currently no Legislative corollary of the old Roman practice of putting the Head Engineer under a bridge while heavy carts are rolled across as a "quality conformance test". Heck, by the time the voters discover the that there is no pony buried under the manure, the offending Legislator has been ensconced in a lobbying gig for many months after the offending bill has been codified. But in this case, voters would do well to encourage the Governor to borrow from yet another movie cliché in his battle to get some kind of positive budgetary change in Sacramento:

 

           Go Ahead, Make My Day.

 

Stay tuned.

 

Link at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget17-2008sep17,0,470177.story?page=2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once More, With Feeling:

    It's not so much that there should be a fondness for the M-16/M-4 class of firearms at any pro-gun website worth it's salt. But it's simply encouraging to realize that, if the comments near the end of the video clip by one of the soldier's present is any indication, that Governor Palin can hit a target nearly dead center with a firearm/simulator that is not a personal one.

 

 

Respectfully,

 

 

Anthony Canales

SFVMC-NRA