ATF Photo Op Blunder

[rosco61]

ATF : We'll shut down your FFL for a typo.... we'll arrest you for not having all the correct paperwork filed on your pistol brace AR.... there are no mistakes made when it comes to gun compliance.

Also the ATF....

I thought they were GLG-20's

 

[PappyM3]

So, if you go to a NES shoot, you only shoot the gun you carry? I doubt it. I wouldn't as long as someone was willing to let me shoot their hardware.

As for training, I went into a trafficking stash house once. We ended up with a couple pistols (1911 knockoffs and a 357 revolver) and a SKS type rifle/pistol/monstrosity with an attached magazine (stock sawed off haphazardly). I was the only one that had any idea how to clear/safe the weapon. I happen to own an AK, which is similar to a certain extent. It was the only weapon in the house that wasn't loaded ready to go. So, yeah, ATF guys, you know, the guys who deal almost exclusively with illegal firearms, should know how to handle almost any firearm. That training is continuing, because if you haven't handled a gun in a while you forget how it works.

As for the agency existing, I'd tend to agree it's one of those that should go away or at a minimum be swept into another 3 letter agency. HSI suddenly had an interest in the deal I was a part of, ATF tried to swing by but HSI yelled 'claimed' and took over the case.

1. I don’t spend federal taxpayer monies when someone at the range lets me shoot their privately owned firearms.

2. I already stated that classroom lessons on clearing and making safe random firearms is appropriate for ATF agents. That can be done without going to the range. And that’s not what is happening with a WWII machine gun shoot with prosecutors.

 

[ThePreBanMan]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=nuR5A6IcUbg

So typical...

 

[namedpipes]

My problem with it is they’re wasting tax payer money having a day off on the range with WWII machine guns that have 0 relevancy to their job.


* ignoring for a moment that they are almost always wasting tax payer money even in the scope of their job.

Edit: I’m honestly thinking of submitting an IG complaint for waste and abuse.

That would only piss off the ATF and also the investigators. It won't accomplish anything, just Internet with people doing their actual jobs.

Actually, that sounds like a great idea. Do it!

 

[weekendracer]

1. I don’t spend federal taxpayer monies when someone at the range lets me shoot their privately owned firearms.

2. I already stated that classroom lessons on clearing and making safe random firearms is appropriate for ATF agents. That can be done without going to the range. And that’s not what is happening with a WWII machine gun shoot with prosecutors.

What extra money is being spent? 9mm? The same exact round they'd shoot anyway, just through a different gun? I'd bet it was a range day, qual day, training day. Those rounds were going to be shot. At least that's when we had extra people on the range, we didn't schedule a day just to do that kind of stuff.

Even with us, we'd have one qual a year where we'd bring in personal stuff and let everyone handle it. In my time, if it was .40 or 223 we'd shoot them if the owner didn't have sufficient ammo to let everyone shoot.

 

[PappyM3]

It sounds like it was more a fun day for them to take the local US attorney’s office out. Not worth getting upset about in any case - I think people just like mocking the so called firearm authorities for stupid shit like this.

The problem is that fun day with ATF agents and US Attorneys, who would be happy to ruin any of our lives, was paid for by us.

Yeah, it’s fun to set government conferences at expensive Hawaiian resorts too. Doesn’t make it the right thing to do.

 

[PappyM3]

What extra money is being spent? 9mm? The same exact round they'd shoot anyway, just through a different gun? I'd bet it was a range day, qual day, training day. Those rounds were going to be shot. At least that's when we had extra people on the range, we didn't schedule a day just to do that kind of stuff.

Even with us, we'd have one qual a year where we'd bring in personal stuff and let everyone handle it. In my time, if it was .40 or 223 we'd shoot them if the owner didn't have sufficient ammo to let everyone shoot.

Did you invite US attorneys to your qual days?

You also ignored the 45 ACP. And yes, shooting all the 9mm through their duty guns would have been fine. The MP38/40 shooting 9mm doesn’t suddenly make it okay to waste resources.

 

[not new guy]

The problem is that fun day with ATF agents and US Attorneys, who would be happy to ruin any of our lives, was paid for by us.

Yeah, it’s fun to set government conferences at expensive Hawaiian resorts too. Doesn’t make it the right thing to do.

Yup - that’s why I condescendingly called it a fun day. We don’t seem to have any friends at either the atf or the US Attys these days.

On a government waste meter this doesn’t even register though.

 

[not new guy]

And if this was a serious training day they wouldn’t have invited the lawyers along. This feels more like some sort of marketing/ingratiation exercise, building a bond between two groups that have their sights set on all of us.

 

[weekendracer]

Did you invite US attorneys to your qual days?

You also ignored the 45 ACP. And yes, shooting all the 9mm through their duty guns would have been fine. The MP38/40 shooting 9mm doesn’t suddenly make it okay to waste resources.

Yes. They rarely took us up on it. We did bring the admin people out once and let them shoot. It was a grand total of maybe 4 extra boxes of ammo that day. Each one fired a magazine or two and called it a day. Your outrage is simply misplaced.

Look, the way the government buys ammo they throw in a couple cases here and there for off caliber stuff. I'd imagine the ATF has a box of just about anything you can name laying around somewhere. I wouldn't doubt if some of it is older than you and I.

 

[Junior314]

I’m sure bringing out all the cool toys has nothing to do with the females who were invited.

 

[Junior314]

Did you invite US attorneys to your qual days?

You also ignored the 45 ACP. And yes, shooting all the 9mm through their duty guns would have been fine. The MP38/40 shooting 9mm doesn’t suddenly make it okay to waste resources.

I’d be curious to know the history of how the MP40 was obtained by the ATF.

 

[In God We Trust]

That never gets old. Homeboy was probably a GS-4 so yo get what yo pay fo.

Those guys all start at GS-09 I believe. If you get a little overtime thrown in, it’s not a bad salary.

 

[OnTheRoad]

I’d be curious to know the history of how the MP40 was obtained by the ATF.

Probably stolen appropriated "seized" from the estate of a WW2 vet.

 

[In God We Trust]

The problem is that fun day with ATF agents and US Attorneys, who would be happy to ruin any of our lives, was paid for by us.

Yeah, it’s fun to set government conferences at expensive Hawaiian resorts too. Doesn’t make it the right thing to do.

I think it’s a great idea to have the people involved in prosecuting “gun crime” to be familiar with how guns actually work and what the terminology means. maybe they left with a more positive opinion on gun ownership.

 

[weekendracer]

Those guys all start at GS-09 I believe. If you get a little overtime thrown in, it’s not a bad salary.

It's worse than that, most of the 'big' 3 letter guys are 13's in short order.

I started as a 5 (made $30k my first year), my guys in Cali used to use their creds to apply for food stamps until they had a few years in. They have effectively written feds out of the FLSA completely. I was working 50 hours a week for straight pay as an hourly, non-supervisor, worker. 45 Act pay, the OT you speak of, was literally straight pay for me for the last 10 years I was in. I refused to work "OT", they had to mandate me.

 

[rosco61]

There was another picture of this event somewhere. It was a woman holding a AR-458 and the selector switch was on fire. Now I just reminded myself that I gender labeled them. Not even knowing what their pronouns were.
I am so sorry.

 

[drgrant]

1. I don’t spend federal taxpayer monies when someone at the range lets me shoot their privately owned firearms.

2. I already stated that classroom lessons on clearing and making safe random firearms is appropriate for ATF agents. That can be done without going to the range. And that’s not what is happening with a WWII machine gun shoot with prosecutors.

Dude the whole agency is a waste of money, and you're doing the equivalent of focusing on how much toilet paper they're using as an agency. The whole thing should be shut down.