Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms

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Airport Chief Hurt in Shootout With ATF Agents
Airport Chief
Shot During ATF
Gunfight Dies
UPDATED

Airport Chief Shot During ATF Gunfight Dies

It's still not clear what agents were looking for

(Newser) - The Arkansas airport director shot by federal agents who were serving a search warrant on his home early Tuesday has died, the airport announced Thursday. Bryan Malinowski, 53, "was a 16-year employee of the airport," the chair of the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission said in a statement...

He Fled the Feds in 2011. He Was Just Found 'Squatting'

Michael Duane Strain, busted on Native American reservation in Montana, was on most wanted list

(Newser) - They thought he was hiding in Minnesota, but they nabbed him in Montana. USA Today reports 62-year-old Michael Duane Strain, one of the 15 most wanted fugitives on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms' list, was busted last week by US Marshals Service deputies on a Native American reservation...

Schumer: ATF Should Probe Dominican Republic Deaths

'We still have a whole lot of questions and very few answers'

(Newser) - The Senate's top Democrat said Sunday that the US government should step up efforts to investigate the deaths of at least eight Americans in the Dominican Republic this year. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives should lend support to the FBI and local law enforcement, said Sen....

Huge Cache of Guns Seized in One of LA's Ritziest Areas

More than 1K firearms found in Holmby Hills mansion

(Newser) - LAPD officers and ATF agents seized enough guns to equip a small nation's military after raiding a home in one of Los Angeles' ritziest neighborhoods early Wednesday. LAPD spokesman Mike Lopez says a man was arrested after the raid in Holmby Hills, which took place after officials received a...

During Traffic Stop, Tennessee Cops Find This

'Every clip was loaded. Every gun was loaded'

(Newser) - A Tennessee man is in custody after he was found to have several fully and semi-automatic weapons and more than 900 rounds of ammunition during a traffic stop, say federal police. Scott Edmisten, 43, was spotted driving 55mph in a 30mph zone and sped up to 80mph for about a...

Trump Promised to Send the Feds Into Chicago. He Just Did

President tweets 'crime and killings' have reached 'epidemic proportions'

(Newser) - Because of "crime and killings" now at "epidemic proportions," President Trump has sent the feds into Chicago, he tweeted Friday morning. His announcement aligns with previous tweets in which he called the city's murder rate "record setting" and the situation "totally out of control,...

Feds: These Plastic Guns We Printed Are a Menace

3D-printable guns lethal, hard to detect, ATF warns

(Newser) - After months of creating plastic guns with 3D printers, ATF agents have confirmed that they work—a lot of the time—and can be both lethal and very hard to detect. "We downloaded files, we created firearms from those files, and we tested those firearms," said the chief...

ATF Lost $127M in Cigs in Unapproved Stings


 ATF Lost $127M in Cigs 
 in Unapproved Stings 

REPORT SAYS

ATF Lost $127M in Cigs in Unapproved Stings

Due to 'serious lack of oversight,' says Justice Department report

(Newser) - Apparently firearms aren't all that go missing over at the ATF: a Justice Department report says feds lost track of some 2.1 million packs of cigarettes, worth $127 million, from at least 20 undercover and unapproved stings between 2005 and 2011, the Washington Post reports. The $162 million...

Jon Stewart: NRA Is Punking Us
 Jon Stewart: NRA Is Punking Us 

Jon Stewart: NRA Is Punking Us

'Daily Show' host thinks ad is a Joaquin Phoenix-style hoax

(Newser) - Jon Stewart took one look at yesterday's NRA ad calling President Obama a hypocrite over armed guards at his daughters' school, and thought, "If I didn't know any better, after seeing that ad, I would think the NRA is either an elaborate, avant garde, Joaquin Phoenix-style joke...

Gun Background Checks Miss Millions of Mentally Ill

Many states don't share mental-health records with FBI

(Newser) - Millions of mentally ill people could pass a gun background check today, because many states simply don't bother submitting mental-health records to the FBI, according to reports today in both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal . Thanks to a 1997 Supreme Court ruling, states don't have...

Talks Fail, House GOP Moves on Holder's Contempt Vote

John Boehner says House will move forward with vote

(Newser) - The White House's last-ditch effort to avoid a contempt of Congress vote against Eric Holder has failed and John Boehner says the House will move forward with the vote, the AP reports. The Obama administration had offered to show congressional investigators some of the documents related to Fast and...

Upping the Ante, Issa Says Obama Conspired With DOJ

Congressman's letter escalates Fast & Furious battle

(Newser) - Darrell Issa is upping his attack on President Obama following the president's use of executive privilege in an attempt to bail out Eric Holder. A letter to Obama released today minces no words: "Either you or your most senior advisors were involved in managing Operation Fast & Furious...

Holder: We Didn't Lie About 'Fast and Furious'

He says charges are forthcoming against those who screwed up

(Newser) - Eric Holder angrily denied that the Justice Department was trying to hide anything about the botched "Operation Fast and Furious" program in his testimony before Congress today—and insisted that he'd had no knowledge of the gun-tracking operation. "There's no attempt at any kind of coverup,...

DEA Launders Money for Mexico Drug Cartels

Critics say laundering helps cartels, blurs sovereignty

(Newser) - One element of the United States' efforts to find and track Mexican drug money is surprising: Undercover US agents have laundered and smuggled millions of dollars for the drug cartels, reports the New York Times . American officials, particularly those with the DEA, say these laundering operations provide invaluable intel, allowing...

40 'Fast & Furious' ATF Guns Found in Cartel Thug's House

ATF weapons circulated further, faster than anticipated

(Newser) - Forty weapons from the ATF's botched "Fast and the Furious" gun-tracking plan ended up in a home of the top enforcer for the Sinaloa drug cartel, reports the Los Angeles Times . In all, 100 guns were transported from Phoenix, site of the failed sting operation, to El Paso,...

Bungled ATF Sting Lost Track of More Than 1K Firearms

House hearing on Operation Fast and Furious held today

(Newser) - Operation Fast and Furious, the bungled ATF gun-trafficking probe , was even more bungled than originally thought: Federal agents lost track of more than 1,000 firearms purchased by suspected gun smugglers during the Arizona investigation. The information comes from a new congressional report ahead of a House hearing today examining...

Was Agent Killed With Cartel Guns Supplied by US?

Feds refusing to provide answers on bungled weapons sting

(Newser) - The family of a US immigration agent who was shot dead by Mexican drug cartel gangsters is demanding to know if the guns that killed him came from the bungled federal "Fast and Furious" sting operation that put hundreds of weapons into the hands of smugglers, reports the Los ...

Obama Orders Gun Dealers to Report Multiple Rifle Sales

Order covers border states

(Newser) - The Obama administration is ordering gun dealers in southwestern border states to report the sale of multiple semiautomatic weapons to federal authorities, in a bid to stem the flow of weapons to Mexican drug gangs. The new regulation will require the roughly 8,500 dealers in California, Arizona, New Mexico,...

ATF Head Likely to Quit Over Guns Scandal

Kenneth Melson has led agency since April 2009

(Newser) - The acting director of the ATF is likely to step down within a day or two, reports CNN, the potential casualty of a botched weapons program meant to halt the flow of firearms into Mexico. Kenneth Melson presided over the agency's "Fast and Furious" program, which inadvertently let...

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