Audit: ATF lost 76 weapons, hundreds of laptops
WASHINGTON - The ATF lost 76 weapons and hundreds of laptops over five years, the Justice Department reported Wednesday, blaming carelessness and sloppy record-keeping.
Thirty-five of the missing handguns, rifles, Tasers and other weapons were stolen, as were 50 laptops, the internal audit found. Two of the stolen weapons were used in crimes.
The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found “inadequate” oversight of weapons and laptops resulted in “significant rates of losses” at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“It is especially troubling that that ATF’s rate of loss for weapons was nearly double that of the FBI and DEA, and that ATF did not even know whether most of its lost, stolen, or missing laptop computers contained sensitive or classified information,” he added.
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Audit: ATF lost 76 weapons, hundreds of laptops
These are the folks that are charged with enforcing the gun laws of the land, making sure that none of us staunch 2nd Amendment supporters actually own a firearm we’re not supposed to have, illegal due to size, configuration or any other little thing they can come up with.
So, who watches the enforcers? This audit covers 5 years. Weapons and laptop computers that may or may not contain sensitive information are lost, stolen or just gone, and it’s taken 5 years for these errors to come to light?
I have a friends that is a gun dealer, a Class III FFL license holder, many of you have seen his sites and his logo in my side bar, my buddy U.S. Citizen at Well-Regulated Militia.com and Traction Control, I wonder how long he’d be allowed to hold onto his license if his accounting and records keeping procedures were this lax?
I wonder what the ATF would do if by chance they came to your house and wanted to see the weapons that you have, as a legal, law abiding gun owner, have registered when you bought them, and all you could do was shrug and say, “Gee guys, I really don’t know what happened to that particular gun, I might have lost it or it could have been stolen. I guess reporting it kinda slipped my mind…”
Yeah, their response to this particular scenario would be rather interesting don’t you think??
You raise some good points.
As to record-keeping, the requirements for transaction records are very stringent. Violations - or perceived violations, can result in protracted and costly litigation.
Look up the story of Red’s Trading Post to get an idea.
An FFL holder could probably get more heat from using abbreviations on a form than the ATF will get for losing scores of firearms.
It appears the agency could use some improved controls.
Many thanks for the links - I look forward to helping with your next purchases!
- USCitizen
Traction Control and
Well-RegulatedMilitia.com
I wonder what really happened?
Lost, stolen or sold……..
Ya gotta finance those *black ops* somehow… 😕
Say, can we use the term *black ops*?? I don’t want anyone to accuse us of being racists…
1. Fred, perhaps we should say, eh, “melanin-enhanced ops”?
2. Hey, it’s the Government. You know, the people that Obama would just LOVE to put in charge of your healthcare, with all the motivation, caring, grace, efficiency, accuracy and zeal of your local DMV.
BZ
I never believed that alcohol. tobacco and firearms was a good mix anyway!!!
Also, TF I think you should have said “people of color ops”!!! LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think this goes much deeper than just the ATF. It shows a complete lack of accountability in the Bush Administration.
B-52’s loaded with nuclear weapons flown over the Continental United States and nobody realized it. Nuclear components mistakenly sent to Taiwan…fortunately Taiwan is a close ally. Illegal aliens flowing over our borders. And, the breakdown of the leading financial institutions which they all saw coming but nobody raised the red flag.
BobF: however, 5 generals recently fried over that B-52 nuke error.
BZ