By: Anthony Morelli
This was a shocking thing for the ATF to do.
It got little attention from the press.
But this quiet move by the ATF might convince judges to go all-in on taking guns away.
Judges are supposed to be neutral arbiters of the law, and they are not supposed to get close to special interest groups of any kind.
Of course, the ATF considers itself to be a government agency, not a special interest group, but in reality, it is more like a special interest group with government power.
The ATF transparently supports gun control and wants the laws to be stricter, and they are apparently making an effort to build relationships with judges to convince them to support their agenda.
They are having days at the shooting range with judges where they demonstrate how “scary” some of the guns they want to ban are.
The idea of this, presumably, is that when cases come before these judges, they’ll be more likely to rule in favor of gun control.
But this type of approach would strike practically anybody as inappropriate, since judges aren’t supposed to be partial.
According to Bloomberg, “Before a group of judges and attorneys stepped into a Texas shooting range last week, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sat them down for a little chat.
“The presentation was titled ‘Privately Made Firearms,’ a reference to the kinds of guns and components that can be made at home, without the tracing elements like serial numbers that can help law enforcement figure out the source of a weapon.”
Of course, Second Amendment advocacy groups are rarely if ever going to have a chance to sit judges down “for a little chat.”
That privilege is apparently reserved for the agents at the ATF, who are looking to convince these judges to be stricter on guns.
The article continues, “Attendees got to watch a 3D printer put out a component that can rig a gun to shoot automatic fire, and even a couple videos showing automatic weapons in use in the real world. That got an accurate warning ahead of time that it’d get a little gruesome.
“Punctuating the presentation was the sound of guns, including automatic weapons, being fired in a shooting range just feet away by attendees who paid a little extra to go ‘shooting with the pros,’ — under the watchful eye of the ATF.”
“What was unexpected was a federal agency instructing about the kinds of weapons they’re tasked with taking off the streets, and that could show up on any judge’s criminal docket.”
The reporter may refer to this as “unexpected” but many people reading this would surely prefer to sub in the word “inappropriate.”
It was not only inappropriate from the perspective of the ATF, but also from the standpoint of the judges who should maintain a distance from potential litigants.
Now, it will be interesting to watch how these judges rule on gun cases in the future after the lecture they received from the ATF.