Dispand the ATF!

ATF Problems Keep Piling Up
A report from CAP and a report written by the U.S. Government Accountability Office both point out similar problems with the ATF:
Agency budgets have not kept pace with the cost of employee salaries and benefits. In 2003, the average salary and benefits cost for an ATF employee was $100,000 which increased to $155,000 in 2013.
ATF struggles to define a coherent mission and often clashes with the FBI in terms of casework and initiatives, as the FBI does considerable work in the areas of guns, explosives, and violent crime.
Numerous scandals have placed ATF under deep congressional scrutiny and have become the target of the gun lobby, severely hijacking their ability to execute their initiatives.
Since its incorporation into the Department of Homeland Security, ATF has lacked the oversight and leadership needed to effectively carry out its missions.
From 2006 and 2011, the Arizona U.S. The Attorney’s Office and the Arizona Field Office of the ATF ran a series of sting operations where they “purposely allowed licensed firearms dealers to sell weapons to illegal straw buyers, hoping to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arrest them”. The operations were conducted under the umbrella of Project Gunrunner. The focus of this genius project was to track down the flow of firearms into Mexico.
During the operation, the ATF monitored a sale of 2,000 firearms. Only 710 firearms were recovered as of February 2012. While a number of purchasers of these firearms were arrested, ATF was unable to capture any high-level cartel members.
These guns have been found at crime scenes along the Mexico and U.S. border. US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010 by one of these weapons which the ATF allowed to fall into the hands of Mexican cartel members. ATF members in opposition to the program finally came forward to Congress after Agent Terry’s death. After further investigation, firearms related to this project have been linked to the deaths of at least 150 Mexican civilians.