The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives posted two 60-day notices in the Federal Register today, the first under the heading “Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comments Requested: Relief of Disabilities,” and the second under “Certification of Qualifying State Relief From Disabilities Program.”

Citing that the information requests will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget, the notice advises interested parties that “Comments are encouraged and will be accepted for ‘sixty days’’ until January 22, 2013.”The first notice is an “[e]xtension of a currently approved collection” on “Relief of Disabilities.” The “need” cited for the request is because “[a]ny person prohibited from shipping or transporting any explosive in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or from receiving or possessing any explosive which has been shipped or transported in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce may make application for relief from disabilities.”
The notice estimates “that 50 respondents will take one minute to support documentation for relief [and the] estimated annual total burden associated with this collection is one hour.”

That’s for explosives. As far as getting firearms rights recognized for people prohibited by federal law from possessing a gun, the bureau with the billion (plus) dollar budget can’t lift a finger. While federal law provides a mechanism for prohibited persons to apply to have their prohibition lifted, a congressional appropriations “Catch-22” tactic in use by committed anti-gunners since 1992 will not allow ATF to use federal funds to process a request. What we see as a result are outrageous injustices, like the case of Thomas Lamar Bean, who due to inadvertently having some ammunition in his truck when he went to Mexico, has been branded a prohibited person for life with the resulting destruction of his livelihood, and with no ability to petition for redress, or more precisely, no ability to have anything done about his petition.

[readon2 url=”http://www.examiner.com/article/atf-notice-on-disability-information-collection-highlights-absurd-injustice”]Read the rest at The Examiner[/readon2]