Friday, January 21, 2011

Yogi Berra was right. Rumor of a big, bad ATF bust early next week.


"It's deja vu all over again." -- Yogi Berra.


In February 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (before they tacked on Explosives to the moniker) was in a world of PR trouble. Sexual harassment lawsuits and racial discrimination complaints abounded. Senators and Congressmen were asking uncomfortable questions. The agency needed a big raid to divert attention from their own internal troubles. Then somebody in Dallas had a bright idea.

Their bright idea got four ATF agents killed that day plus five Davidians.

This is how it ended 51 days later, with 80 dead Davidians, including babies.



That was then, this is now.

Now the ATF is in trouble again -- even worse trouble, really -- in the Project Gunwalker scandal, and word is out on the street -- a rumor only, but whispered by folks in a position to find out -- that the agency is about to go back to the old playbook.

This just in over the electronic transom:

Scuttlebutt is there's gonna be a big ATF enforcement/operations story dropped Monday or Tuesday, to try and divert attention away from what's been increasing interest in the murder of the Border Patrol agent and other issues of embarrassment to ATF.

This is not about ATF's announcement that there will be an announcement about the importation of shotguns (see: http://blog.princelaw.com/2011/1/20/atf-to-issue-new-ruling-on-monday-regarding-new-restrictions-on-shotgun-importation). Good thing I have my 2 Saiga 12s and a bunch of drum magazines. Like what's the difference between a 12 gauge Streetsweeper with an 18" barrel designed to be fired from the shoulder (classified by ATF as a Destructive Device), and a 12 gauge Saiga with an 18" barrel designed to be fired from the shoulder and equipped with a 20-round drum magazine (classified by ATF as a Title I firearm)? Answer: The Saiga holds 8 more rounds than the Streetsweeper.

The story on Monday or Tuesday is going to be about a lotta bad guys getting arrested by ATF, to try and uplift ATF's image.


I'd like to think that the people who run this agency are not historical amnesiacs.

I'd like to think that the agency has a longer institutional memory than that of a fruit fly convention.

I'd like to think that the ATF management is not once more offering up their young agents' lives on the altar of political expediency and bureaucratic desperation.

I'd like to think that no innocents will be killed in order to divert attention away from a scandal that the United States Senate has already noticed.

I'd like to think that these taxpayer supported criminals of the ATF's upper management are not really so stupid as to think that other people won't notice that this is just kabuki theater played for the television cameras with automatic weapons and other people's lives.

I'd like to think that.

But it is not the way to bet.

These people are desperate bureaucrats who have committed criminal acts and who will do anything to divert attention from their own felonies.

There is a special place in hell for such people.

Let's hope this is just another unfounded rumor.

But, again, that's not the way to bet.

Mike Vanderboegh
III

15 comments:

Defender said...

You may have just prevented it.
But if not, I don't have a job, but I do have money for gas.

Eric said...

This WILL be a VERY bad mistake on their part if it does happen.

Eric
III

Neil E. Wright said...

REFUSE. RESIST. Do NOT Submit. ★ FREEDOM! ★

Bad Cyborg said...

SHIT!!!!

And I SOOO wanted a semi-auto 12 gau. with a pistol grip.

My money says the Militias are going to be on alert com Sunday. I'd damn well be if I were part of one.

Urolalic, coprophagic, patri-fellating oedipae!

Can a rebellion be far off?

Mark Matis said...

Maybe it would be appropriate for anyone in Congress who is thinking about oversight hearings of BATFE to make this point to them?

Anonymous said...

I called my newly elected senator's office several times and the line was always busy, but I left a message asking him to look into BATF taking illegal guns into Mexico.

Kent McManigal said...

No more free Wacos. This could be it.

Pat H. said...

Two things, one, the Davidians were much too kind to the ATF agents the day of the home/church invasion by the ATF. Taking hostages would have altered the outcome substantially, that's what I'd have recommended.

And two, we all need to be on heightened alert in our homes, the ATF hates being overshadowed by the FBI, who just staged a huge arrest of organized criminals in the Northeast. Could the ATF be planning something similar among Self Defense Rights supporters? Yes.

Maintain your battle rifle charged, ready, and close.

Take no prisoners.

j3maccabee said...

CYBORG :

Your "Urolalic, coprophagic, patri-fellating oedipae! "
trumps my 'smegmaphiles' in spades!
I hereby nominate you for the William F. Buckley, Jr., Memorial Award / Linguistics Division.

Arctic Patriot said...

Any bets on the targets?

An Islamic Jihadist group?
An MS-13 enclave?
Bloods?
Crips?

My money's on a rural white farmer who sells unpasteurized milk and has, in the past, been known to fly the American flag, talk about liberty, and owns an uber dangerous collection of *gasp* semi-automatic guns, along with an "arsenal", a "cache", some "sniper" weapons (varmint gun), "Copkiller" bullets, "hollowpoint" bullets, a pistol gripped shotgun, and an AK that allegedly slamfired once twenty years ago.

I bet this dangerous criminal is killed as he comes to answer the door in his robe and slippers. Likely some fresh-out-of-academy oathbreaking agent will have entrapped him and convinced him to do something like cutting off a shotgun barrel 1/2" too short.

After the fact, he will be demonized and the public will be told he was a pedophile, a racist, a drug addict, and an insane fellow who drank baby blood from the fresh, still-steaming skin of a kitten every night. And the public will drink it up, tsk-tsking their way throughout the day. Everyone, from his neighbors, to Rachel MadCow, to patriots everywhere will distance themselves from him as quickly as possible.

I bet they taze his seventy year old wife, shoot the dog, put his grandchildren in protective custody, and burn the house down in the process.

Then, as in many other like cases, most if not all charges will be dropped, quietly, after-the fact, while the nation is obsessing over the next hit reality show (Hutaree, anyone?).

All in the name of public safety, among other things.

This is how they work. Isolate, demonize, destroy. Order may vary. Repeat.

/End of rant./

Have a good weekend.

AP

Anonymous said...

"My money says the Militias are going to be on alert com Sunday. I'd damn well be if I were part of one."

I'd be shocked if they actually went after some militia.

No, my bet is some gangs in Phoenix or Tucson are going to have their cribs flash-banged.

After all, PG was designed to track guns going to Mexico; they need to roll up the op now and arrest a bunch of tatted-up thugs.

The more illegally from Mexico, the better...even if that does make Janet look very, very stupid.

Pat H. said...

One thing to keep in mind, gentlemen, any BATFAE agent can refuse to obey an unlawful assignment or order, so when they show up, under ANY circumstances, they are outlaws.

Outlaws are always sanctioned with extreme prejudice.

By the way, there has been some unlawful BATFAE activities in my local operational area, I'm investigating it. It has been kept way too quiet, strange considering the cases have already been adjudicated.

Anonymous said...

Monday or Tuesday. That would put it just prior to the State of the Union. Any chance something's afoot to showcase something in Obama's address?

Anonymous said...

Interesting times for this Fed Bureaucracy. Not ice how quiet they have been until this week. Big developments on the shotgun issue, lot of scuttle but coming out of the Shot Show, (if you been following other blogs).

These guys are running scared and are making moves to make it seem as if they actually have a purpose. Me's thinks they be putting up alot of smoke and mirrors right now to try an avert attention to the more adverse stories.

Now this Raid rumor? None of this is going to end good. They are cornered, they are eating their own, its going to get ugly as they make some rash decisions.

Reg T said...

"I have been criticized by referring to our federal masked men as 'ninja' … Let us reflect upon the fact that a man who covers his face shows reason to be ashamed of what he is doing. A man who takes it upon himself to shed blood while concealing his identity is a revolting perversion of the warrior ethic. It has long been my conviction that a masked man with a gun is a target. I see no reason to change that view."

LTC John Dean "Jeff" Cooper