If confirmed, B. Todd Jones would become the first leader of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), ending the bureau’s more than 2,500 days without an official director. The ongoing confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary committee is fraught with controversy amidst allegations that Jones initiated crackdowns against whistleblowers while working for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota.
Complicating matters is the fallout from the botched “Fast and Furious” operation, a gun-walking sting that went awry in 2011, when agents lost track of more than 1,000 firearms taken to Mexico by drug cartels. Many were later used in the killings of at least 150 Mexican citizens. It’s served to bolster critics from the pro-gun lobby who claim the agency is ineffective and tramples upon the Second Amendment rights of U.S. citizens.
Controversy surrounding Jones
Obama first nominated Jones to lead the ATF shortly after the Sandy Hook massacre, a December 2012 school shooting that left 27 people dead. The tragedy set off a firestorm of activity, including a package of proposals by the president aimed at curbing gun violence. Toward that end, Obama made the ATF nomination a top priority in his proposals which included mandatory background checks for firearms purchases, as well as an assault weapons ban.
Long before Sandy Hook, there were scandals and controversy within the ATF, but Senate Democrats, including Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), have stood by Jones and support his nomination, saying he is “well equipped” to lead the agency.
“There have been problems over the years that need to be addressed to keep debacles from happening, but by all accounts Todd Jones has done well. In the case of the current director, he has been acting director for 15 months and there have been few complaints,” John Hudak, a Brookings Institute fellow, told Mint Press News.
Members of the pro-gun community are not convinced, however, and have opposed Jones’ nomination from the start, questioning his qualifications and management style while at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minneapolis.
The Star Tribune reports that Republicans have cited anonymous complaints from lawyers at the Minneapolis U.S. Attorney’s office who accuse Jones of having a “militaristic” management style that has fostered a “climate of fear.”
Nothing has been decided, but many gun groups believe that now is not the time to nominate Jones given ongoing questions about his alleged retaliation against a whistleblower.
“We are concerned. Jones is currently under investigation for retaliation against a whistleblower while a U.S. attorney in Minnesota. I recognize that there has been no official decision but our position is that while he is being investigated, this isn’t the time to be giving him more authority,” Erich Pratt, director of communications for Gun Owners of America (GOA), told Mint Press News.
The allegations stem from an ongoing civil case involving a critical letter about Jones’s leadership sent by a former FBI official. Using this evidence, Sen.Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) lambasted Jones during a recent hearing, claiming that he was unfit to lead the ATF.
“Why are we even here today?” Grassley asked during a confirmation hearing earlier this week. “There are allegations of gross mismanagement and abuse of authority in Mr. Jones’s office, and there is a complaint that Mr. Jones retaliated against a whistleblower.”
The issue is about much more than Jones’s leadership and appears to be rooted in the “Fast and Furious” operation debacle in 2011.
Operation Fast and Furious
As part of the agency’s mandate to track and arrest those involved with illegal gun trafficking, agents set up an operation they hoped would bring down major gun trafficking networks. Instead of arresting gun buyers after undercover agents sold them weapons illegally, the agency allowed the suspects to walk in the hopes of monitoring the weapons and later bringing down a larger trafficking operation they suspected was operating from the southwestern U.S. into Mexico.
The operation was run out of the ATF’s Phoenix field office from fall 2009 until January 2011 but went awry after agents lost track of roughly 2,000 weapons. Many were brought into Mexico, where several hundred were recovered by Mexican police when they identified the serial numbers.
Most of the weapons remain unaccounted for to this day and Mexican authorities claim that some of the guns have been used by cartels to murder some 150 Mexican nationals.
“Here you had the ATF sending illegal guns into Mexico resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Mexican citizens,” Pratt said.
Commentators claim that the agency has tried to make amends. “Several ATF agents have been disciplined. One of the deputy directors was disciplined as well and is trying his best to deal with the managerial problems that exist,” Hudak said.
Are laws to blame?
The ATF debate continues as the U.S. is beset by ongoing gun violence. Thirty-two people are murdered in acts of gun violence every day and 12,000 die on average each year, according to statistics published by the Brady Campaign.
Is the ATF part of the problem or part of the solution? Both sides of the issue say that current laws are to blame.
“In broader terms, the ATF does essentially what it’s title would suggest. It looks at curbing gun trafficking as much as federal laws allow gun trafficking to be addressed. Federal law has been written to limit the role of the ATF. It has a structure set up to do more than Congress will allow it to do,” Hudak said.
The ATF remains a major appendage of the Department of Justice, with 5,101 salaried employees and a $1.1 billion budget, according to 2012 internal statistics.
Outspoken supporters of stricter gun legislation claim the ATF is hampered by lax laws that prevent it from properly cracking down on illegal firearm use. Basic reforms like background checks are favored by 90 percent of Americans — including 75 percent of the powerful National Rifle Association’s membership — but have not been passed by Congress.
Creating tougher laws and empowering the ATF will be no easy task given the vociferous opposition from pro-gun communities who claim that federal laws are too restrictive and undermine gun owners constitutional rights.
“Arguably the problem is with the underlying laws that they are enforcing. We would contend that they are unconstitutional, there is no authority for them in the constitution. We have pushed for a repeal of firearm restrictions. These are issues that should be handled by the states, at the state level,” Pratt said.
The agency can claim a number major victories against gangs and criminals involved in the illegal possession and use of firearms. ATF agents also assisted in the investigation after the Boston Bombing and helped apprehend the surviving bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
More recently, ATF agents in Oakland arrested 90 individuals after seizing 92 illegal weapons as well as a large quantity of narcotics in a major raid last month. According to CTUV, ATF and Oakland police seized four kilograms of methamphetamine, three kilograms of marijuana, one kilogram of heroin and a half-kilogram of crack cocaine.
ATF Acting Special Agent in Charge Scot Thomasson, who oversaw “Operation Gideon III,” declared it a major victory, saying, “Taking firearms out of the hands of the worst of the worst criminals who are active shooters is a good thing.”
The operation has been such a success that Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan says it will continue indefinitely.
Despite these successful operations, gun control supporters believe the future of the ATF has been relegated to the whims of partisan politics. “Republicans are playing politics with life and death issues. What the gun lobby has done in an official or more subtle capacity is make clear that the ATF shouldn’t exist. There were efforts to expand the ability of the ATF to monitor what would be considered illegal transactions of guns and essentially criminalized large-scale drug trafficking but those proposals were not approved. The ATF remains essentially neutered,” Hudak said.