Area : AEN NEWS
Date : 10-23-95  22:02
From : alt@iquest.net
  To : All
Subj : Specter on the BATF

From: "Al Thompson" 
Originally to: aen!news@iquest.net
Original Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 21:09:53 -0500


From: Associated Press - 10/23/95


Specter Seeks to Abolish Troubled ATF
By MIKE GLOVER
Associated Press Writer

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter
said Monday the troubled Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms should be disbanded in the wake of bloody
confrontations in Idaho and Texas.

"That particular bureau has outlived its usefulness," said
Specter, a Republican presidential candidate. "They went
overboard. They went to extremes."

Specter headed congressional hearings into the deadly siege
at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, that ended in the deaths of a deputy
U.S. marshal and the wife and son of white separatist Randy
Weaver.

Specter said firearms enforcement duties currently under
ATF should be transferred to the FBI, and the Treasury
Department could divide up other ATF responsibilities. The
ATF is an arm of the Treasury Department.

Specter said there was no single incident that led him to call
for a breakup of the ATF, but that the Ruby Ridge standoff was
"frankly an incident without heroes."

In addition to the Ruby Ridge siege, ATF was involved in the
deadly standoff with Branch Davidians at their complex in Waco,
Texas.

Specter said the agency had been "on the edge of the ledge"
and that with Congress trying to shrink government, ATF was
a logical target.

The agency has long been targeted by gun enthusiasts, and
militia-style groups routinely lambast the agency. Specter
said "even a stopped clock is right twice a day" and that his
effort to abolish the agency was not inspired by those groups.

"I don't want this to appear to be something that we're doing to
try to placate people who call them names, or the militia," Specter
said. "My thinking is based on what they did in this matter."

The Clinton administration and its predecessors considered and
rejected proposals to merge ATF with the FBI, on grounds it had
a distinct mission and that a merger would cause regulatory and
bureaucratic difficulties.


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