Letters to Roger Ailes

Mac Diva has sent the following letter. Since I couldn't do it justice with a summary, I am (with permission, see below) printing it in full.

As background, the rifle found in the vehicle of alleged Beltway snipers John Muhammed and John Malvo was traced back to a Tacoma gun store, Bull's Eye Shooter Supply, which neither had records of selling the gun to the alleged shooters (or anyone else) nor any records of having reported it as stolen. This was discussed in an article in the current Washington Monthly entitled "License to Kill: How the GOP helped John Allen Muhammad get a sniper rifle." Instapundit (who is not a conservative asshole) posted two (one, two) comments on the matter.

Mac Diva writes:

I'm concerned about how the facts about how the assault rifle used in the sniper shooting was acquired are being misrepresented online, including on at least one major blog. Frankly, the lack of enforcement powers of the ATF since conservative 'reforms' is scandalous and this is a great story to highlight that. Here is some research I've gathered on the issue:

I believe Glenn Reynolds is wrong about how Republican's opposition to even minimal gun control enforcement impacted the recent snipers case. The conflict of opinion arose in regard to his response this article in the Washington Monthly[.]

The piece, which normally would have been print edition only, was put online because of the InstaPundit's willful mischaracterization of what it said.

But for the hands off posture taken by Justice Department from John Ashcroft on down, a clearly illicit operation such as Bull's Eye, the shop where the assault rifle used in the attacks was likely sold under the table, would not be in business after years of malfeasance. That posture is reflected in both purposeful under-staffing of ATF and reluctance to prosecute cases presented to them by ATF by federal prosecutors in most states, many of them conservative Republicans who may support Ashcroft's odd reading of the Second Amendment.

I think it particularly important that someone oppose Reynolds in this episode because many people go to his site because of its high visibility. Once there, they probably assume he has some objectivity in regard to issues he discusses. When it comes to gun control, among others, he doesn't.

This opinion piece captures the essence of what is wrong:

"Sadly, the Bush administration is bent on watering down, not beefing up, gun laws. It opposes a national ballistics database. Mr. Ashcroft, choosing gun-lobby loyalty over public safety, even insists on keeping gun-sales records away from anti-terrorism investigators. American lives may have to be sacrificed on the altar of an ideological purity that neither the courts nor wide public opinion considers constitutional or even rational. courts nor wide public opinion considers constitutional or even rational."

The Washington Monthly article says it again:

"But there's a reason you won't see anyone investigating ATF: Its failings are the direct result of actions by the Republican politicians who now control both houses of Congress. At the behest of the National Rifle Association (NRA), GOP lawmakers (and some conservative Democrats) have saddled the bureau with so many legal restrictions that it has little practical power to deter sellers from allowing weapons to flow to criminals. ATF could have cracked down harder on Bull's Eye, but its lack of aggressiveness was precisely what GOP lawmakers had intended. Pro-gun-control Democrats could have made an issue last fall of how Muhammad obtained a sniper rifle, but they remained silent in the face of feared retribution at the polls by the NRA. Now, as the minority party, Democrats have little power to investigate anything, even if they wanted to."

The Seattle Times has continually reported the damning facts about Bull's Eye and its owners since the snipers' weapon was identified.

[An excerpt from the article:]

"What actions the ATF here would have taken is unclear, considering the federal government's spotty record in regulating firearms dealers in Western Washington.

Last year, the office that covers Western Washington ranked last among ATF bureaus in the 90 federal judicial districts for gun-case prosecutions, according to Justice Department records.

The U.S. Attorney's office shares the blame.

Federal prosecutors here turned down nearly two-thirds of the 30 cases that the ATF referred for prosecution, putting the Seattle U.S. Attorney's Office 80th out 90 districts in taking such cases. It accepted six of 30 gun-crime cases last year, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center at Syracuse University."

(This letter was published with permission. The URLs were changed to hyperlinks and quoted portions were italicized for clarity, and the Seattle P-I article was excerpted. Letters to Roger Ailes are always welcomed and appreciated.)