I came across an article from InformationWeek today that discusses the antiquated system (in their terms) of the BATFE’s gun trace system. Much of the data used for a gun trace requested by law enforcement must still come from manually looking it up on microfilm or microfiche.
You may remember that President Obama in his list of gun control proposals made tracing of firearms used in crimes part of his plan. It is number 12 on the list and mandates that all Federal law enforcement agencies submit a trace request for any firearm that they recovered at a crime scene. Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on this on January 16th.
There are two obstacles to updating the system. The first is organizational and has to do with BATFE’s priorities.
ATF CIO Rick Holgate, an experienced technology executive with degrees from Princeton and MIT, is the first to agree. In an hour-long interview with InformationWeek Government at the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, Holgate described the microfilm system as a “target of opportunity.”
He would like to replace the microfilm with a modern imaging system capable of processing gun records much faster and more efficiently. A new system would cost about $4 million, Holgate estimates — not cheap, but a small price to pay to expedite this important process. The ATF’s tech budget is about $80 million, minus $10 million to $15 million if sequestration takes full effect.
But as important as it is, upgrading the Firearms Tracing Systems hasn’t risen to the top of the ATF’s priority list. Holgate has his hands full with a long list of other projects: moving the agency’s email system to the cloud, making aggregate gun-trace data available in an open format, modernizing and integrating the agency’s other legacy systems and, most recently, moving its email archive online to facilitate e-discovery. “It’s not that [replacing] microfiche isn’t important,” Holgate says. “It just has to compete with other priorities.”
The second obstacle is legal. The Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 forbids BATFE from creating a national database of gun registrations, sales, or owners. This is as it should be. If the BATFE does get around to upgrading the system, it must do so in a way that makes the data available faster but does not create the forbidden database. The article and the comments section do explore some alternatives.
I’m not an IT professional or a computer expert. However, when the BATFE does get around to upgrading their search system, we need to keep on top of it to make sure that they don’t surreptitiously develop a gun registry. This is where watching detailed budget requests becomes important. It will provide the clues needed to let us know in advance when BATFE plans to start their upgrade.
Well-placed law enforcement sources tell TMZ … a staffer from “Meet
the Press” called ATF before the show aired to inquire about the
legality of David holding the empty magazine during a segment on gun
control. We’re told the ATF person contacted the D.C. police to find
out if the District of Columbia — the place where the show is broadcast
— had a law prohibiting such a display.
Our sources say the
D.C. police official informed ATF David could legally show the magazine,
provided it was empty. An ATF official then called the staffer from
“Meet the Press” to inform them they could use the magazine.
Reader Stephen Johnson emails: “ATF approval simply makes no sense.
The ATF has no jurisdiction over DC gun laws. And if, in fact, NBC news
called the ATF to ask ‘permission’ this just reinforces how stupid they
are about gun laws and jurisdiction. This story smells…. bad.” Hmm.
If D.C. were a state I’d be sure this was correct. But since it’s a
federal enclave I’m not sure.
I tend to scan the press releases from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives where they crow about their latest exploit as the “Violent Crime Bureau”. They usually involve felons in possession or drug dealers getting sent to prison with the occasional straw purchase thrown in for good measure. The press releases are officially from the US Attorney’s Office for the relevant local judicial district.
Today I happened to read one concerning a felon in possession. The headline for the release read “Austin Felon Sentenced for Possessing Assault Rifle.” I immediately wondered how some felon got a full-auto rifle which was an error on my part. Instead it was one of those ugly guns with the shoulder thing that goes up. In other words, a semi auto rifle which in this case probably was a Saiga or one of the many AK clones.
MINNEAPOLIS – Earlier today in federal court in St. Paul, a 31-year-old felon from Austin was sentenced for possessing an assault rifle. United States District Court Judge Richard H. Kyle sentenced Samuel James Johnson to 180 months in prison on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Johnson, who was indicted on April 17, 2012, pleaded guilty on June 6, 2012.
In his plea agreement, Johnson admitted that on November 4, 2010, he possessed a 7.62 x .39 caliber, semi-automatic assault-style rifle.
This press release came from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota. The US Attorney there is B. Todd Jones who is also the Acting Director of BATFE.
I guess one shouldn’t expect the press to get the difference between an “assault rifle” and a so-called “assault weapon” straight if even the agency tasked with the enforcement of firearm laws or its Acting Director doesn’t.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Final Report, Part 1, on Operation Fast and Furious appears to have caused its first “casualty”. The AP is reporting that William Hoover, one of the five BATFE managers named in the report, has left the agency.
Hoover was Deputy Director of BATFE from 2009 until 2011 when he was reassigned due to the fallout from Operation Fast and Furious. He had been appointed the Special Agent in Charge of the Washington (DC) Field Division by Acting Director B. Todd Jones last October but was relieved of his duties in January 2012 along with Mark Chait and William McMahon. At the time, it was speculated that Hoover was relieved of his duties in advance of the Inspector General’s report. That report still has not been either completed or released by the OIG.
Hoover had received bi-weekly briefings on Operation Fast and Furious but never shut it down despite reported misgivings.
This may be snarky but I’m sure Mr. Hoover is leaving with most of his pension intact.
William Hoover, former ATF deputy director, retired this week according to reliable sources. Hoover was the official who ordered an “exit strategy” for the operation when he realized its scope, but according to the report, that strategy was never followed. “Hoover,” the report says, “was also instrumental in briefing Department of Justice personnel about the status of Fast and Furious, and had previously discussed gunwalking concerns in another case with Bill Newell.”
Richard Serrano of the LA Times writes that a report that should be released later this week by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee names five BATFE officials as collectively responsible for Operation Fast and Furious. The report also states that they attempted to hide from the Mexican the fact that is was walked guns that were used in the murder of the Mexican attorney general’s brother.
This report is the first of three to be released. The other two will detail the failure of supervision and leadership by Justice Department officials and will go into the obstruction of the Congressional investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department. This report is co-authored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
The officials named in the report include William Newell, William McMahon, Mark Chait, William Hoover, and Kenneth Melson.
They found that William Newell, the special agent-in-charge in Phoenix, exhibited “repeatedly risky” management and “consistently pushed the envelope of permissible investigative techniques.” The report said “he had been reprimanded … before for crossing the line, but under a new administration and a new attorney general he reverted back to the use of risky gunwalking tactics.”
His boss, Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon, “rubber stamped critical documents that came across his desk without reading them,” the report alleged. “In McMahon’s view it was not his job to ask any questions about what was going on in the field.”
They added that McMahon gave “false testimony” to Congress about signing applications for wiretap intercepts in Fast and Furious.
His supervisor, Mark Chait, assistant director for field operations, “played a surprisingly passive role during the operation,” the report said. “He failed to provide oversight that his experience should have dictated and his position required.”
Above Chait was Deputy Director William Hoover, who the report said ordered an exit strategy to scuttle Fast and Furious but never followed through: “Hoover was derelict in his duty to ensure that public safety was not jeopardized.”
And they said Melson, a longtime career Justice official, “often stayed above the fray” instead of bringing Fast and Furious to an “end sooner.”
The report, while naming Melson as one responsible officials, said that Justice Department officials tried to make him the scapegoat for the operation after his testimony to the committee on July 4th of 2011.
To date, all the men named in the report still hold positions within BATFE headquarters or the Justice Department in the case of Kenneth Melson.
US Attorney for Minnesota and Acting Director of BATFE, B. Todd Jones, has been distributing a number of videos called “Changecasts” to BATFE agents and employees telling how he plans to run the agency. His Changecast #8: Choices and Consequences sent out July 9th is below.
“Choices and consequences means simply that 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,” Acting Director B. Todd Jones told the employees in a video distributed July 9 by email and closed-circuit TV and obtained by the Washington Guardian.
The 3 minute, 22 second videotape was the last of eight “Changecasts” that Jones distributed to ATF employees in recent weeks to describe how he planned to run the agency, improve morale and instill a new culture in the aftermath of one of the agency’s worst scandals.
ATF officials in Washington and rank-and-file agents told the Washington Guardian that the tape was interpreted by many as a warning not to pursue the path of the Arizona agents who went outside the agency in 2011 and reported concerns to Congress about the bungled Fast and Furious gun probe that let semiautomatic weapons flow to Mexican drug gangs.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reacted strongly to reports of this video and the implied message. They are demanding that Jones provide them a clarification of the intent of his statements by July 25th.
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa today urged the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to clarify his remarks to employees about reporting concerns within the agency. Grassley and Issa expressed concern that the remarks are likely to chill whistleblowers from reporting legitimate problems and undermine a necessary function for making improvements. The concern is significant because whistleblowers recently put their careers on the line to expose the operational tactics in Operation Fast and Furious that might have led to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
In a video message released to ATF staff on July 9, 2012, ATF Acting Director Todd Jones says, “… 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. …”
Grassley and Issa wrote to Jones, stating that the essence of whistleblowing is reporting problems outside of an employee’s chain of command, and whistleblowers were instrumental in exposing the shortcomings of the government’s botched gun-walking operation, Fast and Furious. Grassley and Issa wrote to Jones, “Your ominous message – which could be interpreted as a threat – is likely to have a major chilling effect on ATF employees exercising their rights to contact Congress. Therefore, it needs to be clarified.”
Grassley and Issa also wrote, “On numerous occasions, we have stressed to ATF and the Department of Justice the importance of protecting whistleblower disclosures and preventing retaliation against whistleblowers.”
Jones has been doing a dog and pony show along with the Changecasts at various BATFE offices around the country. Agents have been strongly encouraged to attend and to submit questions in advance. Originally they were told that everything would be on the table. A post by whistle-blower Vince Cefalu at CleanUpATF.org puts the lie to the “everything on the table” discussions.
As you may know, our new Acting Director Mr. Jones and select staff are traveling the country holding Town Hall meetings for what they have said is an effort to encourage and improve communication, as well as get input from all of us. And as some of you know, I have had a public presence in questioning and pointing out significant and dangerous practices by management of ATF, and have been used as a public face for other ATF personnel who wanted to remain anonymous involving cases and initiatives which have gone horribly wrong and in more than one instance cost innocent lives. We all know we cannot stand by and let ATF disintegrate, and Congress apparently now knows it too.
You need to know that when the Town Hall was scheduled to come to the San Francisco Field Office, I contacted San Francisco Management staff to advise I would like to participate. We had all been advised in writing by one of the ASAC’s that “All active employees (which I am) are encouraged to attend.” I was also advised that all questions and concerns must be submitted in writing ahead of time, so that ATF would have the questions or concerns by close of business one week in advance. So I submitted my questions. I drove (on my own dime) over 200 miles to attend. At close of business on July 10, (the night before) I was advised I would not be allowed to attend. You may want to know about this action by ATF against one of ATF’s so-called “whistleblowers.” I have said nothing publicly.
As to the theme of the Changecast – Choices and Consequences – it has provoked some discussion on CUATF as well. You may remember that a BATFE confidential informant with a history of violence against women in the Seattle area was arrested for raping and abusing an 18-year old girl. That informant had been ultimately approved by Seattle SAC Kelvin Crenshaw. While the first-level supervisor resigned, Crenshaw is still on the job.
“Choices and consequences” my ass Mr. Jones. Do you have any idea how disingenuous you sound given that YOU BROUGHT KELVIN BACK TO WORK AS A SAC????? Or weren’t Kelvin’s choices deserving of any consequences? I cannot wait to see you attempt to explain that one while at the same time trying to justify letting your managers suspend every agent who sneezes. Especially those agents involved in exposing your regime’s nasty antics. And by the way Mr. Jones, you may want to ask Julie Torres what comments she has made about going after the CleanUp posters. I’m thinking that’s probably not going to look too good in the light of day either. Bummer huh Jones?
Finally, Agent Jay Dobyns who became a whistle-blower after he was hung out to dry, his home burned, and his family threatened by the Hells Angels with no protection whatsoever from BATFE, had this to say, in part, about the Changecast and the disfunctional management culture at BATFE.
I saw the Changecast from Acting Director Jones when it was posted. Perception is reality and the perception is that if you don’t play by the rules they are coming after you. I agree with that. Trust me, I fully understand ATF consequences. I have suffered under both justified and unjusitified consequences in my 25 years. When I had it coming I took it like a man and didn’t make excuses or perjure myself to avoid them. When they weren’t justified I didn’t roll over and play coward like they wanted me to.
The problem is the whistleblowers I know have all played by the rules and presented complaints to first, second and third level supervisors, the Ombudsmans office, Internal Affiars, the EEOC, the OIG and OSC, Congress and finally the media. None that I am personally aware of immediately jumped tough and put themselves in front of a reporter or camera. What Acting Director Jones does not discuss is the utter lack of interest when whistleblowers follow the rules. He talks as if the process is balanced but the truth is it is a one-way street. You get NO attention or concern until an executive is embarrassed in the media. Not even an acknowlegement of a complaint beyond a boilerplate email – thank you for your interest; we are very concerned; blah, etc.
Lump the Changecast message with the institutional history of ATF retaliations (still ongoing). Then add in guys like Thomasson who openly state their intent to trainwreck whistleblowers (when interviewed on his statement claimed that he “did not know and does not care”). Take the managers in Phoenix who attacked and derailed the lives of honest agents like Forcelli and Canino and have not been held accountable (Thomasson’s plan being enacted). And then top it off with a “no oversight” policy for the Office of Chief Counsel who has an undeniable track record of whistleblower ambushes. What does that leave you?
An agency where the fear of speaking the truth will leave you in such a demolished state of career, reputation, family and finance that any agent with a brain cell is going to shut up, keep their heads down, let someone else get their head chopped off, and continue to work on (more like survive) in a culture where no one of influence is willing to hear the truth. ATF’s acomplishments have historically been made in spite of our executives, not because of them. Is every executive bad? No. Come on. No one is saying that. But the ones who are, they’re out of control bad and the good ones don’t do a damn thing to reign in their peers for fear that someday the dirty boss could be their boss and the retaliation could come down on them. ATF executives are masters of playing it safe.
While B. Todd Jones will deny that he intended for his Changecast to be seen as a threat to whistle-blowers at BATFE, the message to the field and to management has come across loud and clear – shut-up. As David Codrea’s National Gun Rights Examiner column from Monday makes clear, it is working as other potential whistle-blowers have refused to come out due to fear of retaliation.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has produced a series of public service announcements encouraging people to report “gun crime”. They appear to be aimed at reducing gangs and gang violence.
The first two videos produced feature former Green Bay Packer Antonio Freeman and actor Clifton Powell. The video with Freeman entitled “Game Over” is below.
The video starts with these statements:
“Gun Violence Killed 31,593 People in One Year”
“Gun Violence Killed 2,966 Children (Aged 19 and Under)”
“Gun Violence Kills 87 People Every Day in the U.S.”
These raw numbers come from the CDC’s WISQARS database for 2009. If you go deeper, you find that 59% of the deaths using a firearm are suicides. Only 36% are homicides or what the average person would call a result of violent crime.
Of the 87 people that “gun violence” kills per day, 56 are self-inflicted. Only an average of 31 per day nationwide (or a few weekends in Chicago) are the result of crime.
Looking at the “children” killed by “gun violence”, we find that 2,420 out of the 2,966 deaths are for those aged 16 or older. This would include self-inflicted deaths, gang violence, legal interventions by police, accidents, and murders. Given that a 16 year old can be tried as an adult in most states, I think that is a more appropriate age cut-off than those under age 20.
The data is out there and it is available from reputable government sources. Given that, why is the ATF using skewed statistics from the Brady Campaign? Moreover, why are they using the term “gun violence” when as the chief Federal agency charged with the regulation of firearms they should know better?
These videos are nothing but propaganda and the ATF should be ashamed of themselves. I think Congress should be asking just how much was spent to produce these pieces of propaganda. They should also be asking why they used the Brady Campaign talking points.
Congressional legislation has been introduced to name the bureau’s D.C. headquarters the “Eliot Ness ATF Building’’ after the agent whose battles with bootleggers and mobsters in Prohibition-era Chicago inspired the book, movie and TV series “The Untouchables.’’
The naming really had nothing to do with the Fast and Furious operation, which has become the subject of a congressional investigation. It’s included in a broader bill, introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate committee that oversees federal buildings.
It is reported that Acting Director B. Todd Jones is wholly in favor of this move by Sen. Boxer.
ATF spokesman Drew J. Wade called the proposed name “wholly appropriate and fitting.”
The agency’s acting director, B. Todd Jones, came to the ATF with a “keen understanding of the bureau’s rich history and contributions to public safety and federal law enforcement,” he said. “As such, Mr. Jones determined to see the ATF headquarters building named after one of its own.”
The dissident agents at CleanUpATF.org don’t think too much of this aggrandizing move. They come up with an alternative name in honor of another famous (or infamous) ATF employee.
Many of us disagree. It would be far more fitting, proper and descriptive to name ATF Head quarters the “Russell Vander Werf Building” to memorialize ATF management and commemorate Vander Werf’s sterling (all night) performance in Metairie, LA, December, 2009. Not “The Untouchables”, but “The Touchables”.
I have an alternate suggestion for Sen. Boxer and Acting Director B. Todd Jones as to names. I think the ATF HQ should be named after another Federal law enforcement officer who lost his life in the course of duty – Brian A. Terry. It would be a constant reminder to all ATF Special Agents, managers, and employees of what happens when they seek to influence gun control policy and then f@%k it up by letting guns walk.
Para-USA is getting some unwanted attention thanks to a recent inventory. According to a report on NewsChannel 36 out of Charlotte, Para reported that they could not account for 189 firearms. They made this report to the ATF and to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.
“It’s not usual for a manufacturer of firearms to have a significant number of their product not being accounted for,” said Woodham Wednesday.
The losses are of particular interest to ATF because North Carolina is one of the leading source states for gun smuggling.
PARA released a statement and claimed that no guns were lost and that the situation is due to paperwork errors.
“For example, misnumbered invoices or misplaced documentation of destroyed frames,” the statement read. The company further stated, “We have taken the proper steps in this matter by notifying the authorities of this discrepancy.”
As to the claim that North Carolina is one of the leading source states for gun smuggling, with all due respect to whomever made that claim, it’s bullshit. The only states in which North Carolina is the number one source (other than that state itself) for guns recovered in crimes are South Carolina and Virgina. Both of these states have long contiguous borders with North Carolina. Moreover, despite what Mayor Bloomberg would have you believe, North Carolina is NOT the number one source for guns for New York. The 2011 state-by-state analysis of guns used in crimes and traced from their source can be found here.
If I were Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D), I’d have done my damnedest to keep Jesse Jackson out of Wisconsin and not there campaigning for the recall of Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI). Because with Jesse, it is all about him and his agenda.
Attending a rally of “workers” in Milwaukee on Sunday, he shows up in a two-car cavalcade consisting of a Mercedes S550 and a Cadillac Escalade ESV. The combined price of those two vehicles is about $175,000. The best you can say about that is at least one of the cars was from Government Motors.
If Jesse is trying to say that the guns traced to crimes in Wisconsin are coming from Kentucky, he needs to try a bit harder. The BATFE just released a state-by-state analysis of traced firearms for 2011. Kentucky was tied with Arizona for next-to-last in the top 15 states for traced firearms in Wisconsin with a total of 11. The number one state after Wisconsin itself was Rev. Jackson’s home state of Illinois.
Now I have a shameful admission to make. In 1988, when I was young, stupid, and a Democrat, I actually voted for Jesse Jackson in the North Carolina primary as a protest against Al Gore. I did come to my senses in November and voted Republican.
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