With so much power, and such disregard for the constitutional rights of United States citizens; should they be abolished? Here are two reasons why the ATF should be disbanded.
- Past mistakes:
The ATF has made many terrible mistakes throughout recent history. With incidents including Waco, and Ruby Ridge tarnishing the reputation of the ATF. Heres a short run-down on both Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco, Texas:
- At Ruby Ridge, Randy Weaver was persuaded by an ATF agent to saw-off the barrels of pump-action shotguns and give them to said agent. When he did what the agent asked, he and his wife were arrested. Then a trial was set, when Randy failed to show up, they besieged his home. Durring the seige, they murdered his dog, wife Vikki Weaver, and his fourteen year old son Sammy Weaver. ( If you would like a link to his testimony, I will link it here: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/weaver/randytestimony.html )
- At Waco, a group of religious peoples called: The Branch Davidians; had gathered and settled a communal living space\church in Mount Carmel, Waco, Texas. It was there that an ATF agent infiltrated their home and searched for illegal firearms that were thought to be stored inside. Afterwards, he told the ATF about what he "saw"; including illegally manufactured firearms, configured in full auto. When the ATF got word of this they immediately besieged the church. Mid-siege they decide to use tear gas ( which is flammable ) to smoke out said Branch Dividians. When the gas caught light the entire church burnt to the ground. In doing so seventy-nine American citizens lost their lives including over twenty children.
- Unconstitutional firearm mandates and regulations:
The ATF has made many unconstitutional regulations, here are three of the most over-reaching mandates:
- Bump Stocks- a device utilizing the recoil of the firearm to pull the trigger directly after the weapon is fired.
- Featured rifles- in select states rifles with "assault rifle features" have been banned.
- Magazine restrictions- in select states restrictions on magazine capacity have been reduced to ten rounds.
Do you think that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives should be abolished? Please respond in the comments below.
Replies
James,
Good topic choice! Your summary really needs to start with what the ATF is and it's history to help educate people. Also, be sure to comemnt back to students. That is worth 30 points.
I don’t think that alcohol, tabacco, firearms, or explosives should be banned. We have the right to bear arms and drink alcohol when old enough. People should not have the right to take our guns without a warrent. Officers should not have the right to go onto private property and tell you not to drink. As Americans, we should have the freedom to do what we want on our land.
I believe the ATF should be disbanded because the people that run the Bureau are (for simple terms) complete morons. There is no balance for any sort of equality for lefts and rights, all the bureau has done is banned completely pointless accesories (with the exception of the bump stock used in the Paradise, Nevada Massacre) that just tightens the safety of our own future.
I think it was unresponsible of the ATF to give shotguns a negative connotation by doing this. It almost seems as if they were planning to do it just so they could prove a fake point. I also think it makes sense that the man did not go to the trial when he was supposed to. He didn't even seem guilty for doing it.
I've seen a movie based on the Waco incident, and I thought that ATF made an unreasonable mistake that causted people there lives and it could have been avoided. I think they should be disbanded because of these outragous acts. I feel that the firearm mandates were unnecessary. The featured rifle mandate should be a license to to own an "assult rifle" instead of it being banned.