considering congress doesn t confirm the director of the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms in six years, the agency that works most closely with state and local law enforcement to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals, i suggest that they make this a priority early in the year. even if the senate eventually does confirm president obama s pick for atf director, the director will be unable to do that job effectively. according to today s new york times, the bureau is prohibited from creating a federal registry of gun transactions when law enforcement officers recover a gun and serial number, workers at the bureau s national tracing center begin making their way through a series of phone calls asking the first manufacturer, then the wholesaler, and finally the dealer to search their files
considering congress doesn t confirm the director of the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms in six years, the agency that works most closely with state and local law enforcement to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals, i suggest that they make this a priority early in the year. even if the senate eventually does confirm president obama s pick for atf director, the director will be unable to do that job effectively. according to today s new york times, the bureau is prohibited from creating a federal registry of gun transactions when law enforcement officers recover a gun and serial number, workers at the bureau s national tracing center begin making their way through a series of phone calls asking the first manufacturer,
to identify the buyer of the firearm. about a third of the time, the process involves digging through records sent in by companies that have closed. in many cases, searching by hand through cardboard boxes filled with computer printouts, hand-scrawled index cards or even water-stained sheets of paper. the atf uses this method because the idea of establishing a central database of gun transactions has been rejected by lawmakers in congress who have sided with the national rifle association which argues that such a database poses a threat to the 2nd amendment. on friday, david keane, the president of the nra, said this. next week we will be available to any of you who are interested in talking about these or other issues of interest to you, so contact us, please, at that point.
we will be willing to talk to anybody beginning on monday, and i look forward to talking to you and answering any of your questions next week. well, not exactly anybody. we ve been asking the nra to come on this program since he said that on friday. we ve been told that no one is available. we ll see if someone from the nra becomes available tomorrow night. joining me now is william bizard who was a special agent for 23 years and msnbc political analyst carolyn finney. i was shocked reading the new york sometimes that the atf has been, in effect, so disabled by this nra lobbying just on how we try to keep track of gun transactions. oh, it s more extensive than simply keeping track of gun
then the wholesaler, and finally the dealer to search their files to identify the buyer of the firearm. about a third of the time, the process involves digging through records sent in by companies that have closed. in many cases, searching by hand through cardboard boxes filled with computer printouts, hand-scrawled index cards or even water-stained sheets of paper. the atf uses this method because the idea of establishing a central database of gun transactions has been rejected by lawmakers in congress who have sided with the national rifle association which argues that such a database poses a threat to the 2nd amendment. on friday, david keane, the president of the nra, said this. next week we will be available to any of you who are interested in talking about these or other issues of interest to you, so contact us,