Agents erred at gun shows, official says
Check this out,
Basically sounds like, yeah we goofed, oops. It's for your own good.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137834422596&path=!news&s=1045855934842
at least it didn't get lost, But I don't think anything will change.
In case the link dosn't work,
This was in the Richmond Times Dispatch.
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Agents erred at gun shows, official says
But ATF defends its patrols at hearings on the Richmond events
BY SEAN MUSSENDEN
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE Mar 1, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Federal agents made mistakes while searching for illegal firearm sales at Richmond gun shows, a top federal law enforcement officer told congressional investigators yesterday.
But the official also defended aggressive gun-show patrols conducted by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents and local police, saying that they had prevented violent criminals from buying weapons.
"We acknowledge that some techniques used in our Richmond operations were not implemented in a manner consistent with ATF's best practices," Michael Bouchard, assistant director of field operations for the agency, told the House judiciary subcommittee on crime.
"However, we, along with our law enforcement partners, feel very strongly that our efforts at Richmond gun shows have reduced violent crime and made the streets of Virginia and America safer," he said.
The subcommittee launched an investigation into police patrols at Richmond-area gun shows between 2004 and 2005 after attendees said officers harassed gun buyers. Show organizers complained about a large, visible police presence that, they said, scared away would-be buyers.
ATF agents set up a command post at the show, increasing the number of visible police officers on site. Bouchard said moving the post from show grounds was one of the things his agents could have done differently.
At a hearing two weeks ago, show organizers and attendees told the panel that police racially profiled gun buyers by targeting minorities. Bouchard called that allegation "totally false."
Show organizers also complained that their buyers were subjected to an unfair level of scrutiny. In several cases, ATF agents or officers with city, county or state police were dispatched to talk with a buyers' relatives or neighbors to confirm an address listed on background check forms.
Bouchard defended these residency checks as necessary to stopping illegal sales.
ATF said it polices about one in 50 gun shows nationally. But it began working with Richmond, Henrico County and Virginia State Police after firearms purchased at local shows were routinely linked to local crimes. About 400 guns purchased at Richmond shows were used in crimes between 2002 and 2005.
"There is a plague of violent crime in the city of Richmond," Richmond police Maj. David McCoy told the panel.
In some cases, police had a difficult time tracing guns to criminals because the buyer had listed a false address.
The false-address problem is not common nationwide, Bouchard said, but it was a particular problem at Richmond gun shows. He likened the practice to felons who scratch out the serial numbers on guns to mask their involvement in a crime.
"Word had gotten out on the street and criminals were using bad addresses. . . . So, we had to tailor our approach because we saw that as a significant problem," he said.
The 302 total residency checks conducted at Richmond shows between 2004 and 2005 turned up 47 people who had listed false addresses, he said.
Subcommittee chairman Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., said he appreciated that ATF officials had worked to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. But he called the aggressive tactics heavy-handed.
"It appears some mistakes were made . . . and hopefully they won't be repeated," Coble said.
Annette Gelles, the organizer of an August show at the Richmond Raceway Complex, told the panel in mid-February that regular customers stopped coming because of the stepped-up enforcement. Gelles said yesterday that she hoped the spotlight on ATF gun show operations will prevent agents from being so aggressive in the future.
"But I don't think just public attention alone is enough. I think Congress needs to do something to prevent this from happening again," she said in an interview.
Coble said he had not decided whether laws regarding ATF oversight of gun shows needed to be revised.
Sean Mussenden is a national correspondent in Media General's Washington bureau. E-mail him at
[email protected]
