From Larry Pratt, Executive Director
Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Pl Springfield VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 Fax 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org

November 14, 2007

"We'll miss him in Massachusetts, but he’ll be a strong leader at ATF, and I look forward to working with him on key issues on gun control." -- Senator Ted Kennedy

Dear Senator:

The above quote highlights the concerns we have with the acting director of the BATFE, Michael Sullivan.

Under his leadership, the BATFE has gone berserk. Sure, the problems at ATF didn't originate with him, but Sullivan has certainly done nothing to put out the fire.

While discussing the agency's 2008 appropriations bill, the House Commerce & Justice committee issued a stinging rebuke for the BATFE:

The committee has heard reports that ATF has pursued license revocations and denials against firearms dealers based on violations that consist largely of recordkeeping errors of various types that are unlikely to impede tracing investigations or prosecution of individuals who use firearms in crime. The Committee encourages ATF to consider lesser gradation of sanctions for recordkeeping errors. [House Committee report on HR 3093.]

The strategy, that was begun long before Sullivan arrived, has continued unabated under his tutelage. BATFE inspectors try to find any violation they can, usually focusing on clerical mistakes.

A family gun business that had been operation for years in Baltimore, Maryland was attacked because of the "wanton, repeated crime" of abbreviating Baltimore as "Blto" on the teeny, tiny spaces on the 4473 forms.

Now, the agency has turned their collective guns on Red's Trading Post in Idaho, among others. Even though one ATF agent told the manager that Red's was "one of the best small gun shops" he'd ever seen, the ATF has continued its assault on this gun shop (which has been in business for decades) for minor clerical mistakes and failing to put up a poster.

According to WorldNetDaily, one judge who is familiar with the Red's Trading Post case found "the ATF speaks of violations found during the inspections of 2000 and 2005, but fails to reveal that additional investigations in 2001 and 2007 revealed no violations or problems." The judge also noted the ATF was exaggerating the situation by "double counting" some violations.

The agency holds a continuing animus against gun owners and dealers. Inspectors have no handbook under which to operate, and the absence of such written procedures allows them to be arbitrary and capricious.

Americans don't need an anti-gun cop from Massachusetts as the Director of the federal gun police.

Perhaps the only silver lining here is that if Sullivan were to be confirmed, he would bring the ineptness that has dogged his career to Washington. Under his tenure as U.S. Attorney General, the number of cases brought to trial has decreased each year. "If anything ever happens that requires leadership at the ATF and Mike Sullivan is at the helm," says one his former employees, "it's going to be a sad day." (Boston Magazine, October 14, 2007).

Well, depending on how you take it, that could be a "happy" day for gun owners. But we're not willing to take that gamble, considering the harmful record that he has accrued as head of the ATF.