The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,Firearms and Explosives. These are the guys that brought us Ruby Ridge, Waco, and Fast and Furious. They are federal police, with arrest powers, badges, and guns and little discretion. When they cause a major mess (Ruby Ridge and Waco) they have to call in the FBI to bail them out. They have a history of harassing and entrapment of firearms dealers, gun show customers, and ordinary gun owners.
We would be better off without these feeders at the public trough. State and local police make the great majority of all criminal arrests. We don't need armed federal policemen to collect liquor and tobacco taxes from legitimate manufacturers. Smuggling and bootlegging untaxed cigarettes or liquor is a violation of state law and evasion of state taxes which state police forces are well motivated to pursue.
BATFE has a budget of $1.12 billion a year. Small compared to farm bills and transportation bills. But you know what they say, "A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you are talking about real money."
More competent and better balanced agencies like the FBI and the IRS could handle the few legitimate duties now handled by BATFE.
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