I'm revising my opinion on guns

[Mike]

Don't get me wrong, I still believe in "common sense" gun legislation as much as always. People can have a right to buy, own, and use firearms while also keeping people safer from the worst byproducts of a gun-owning culture.

But I've added a new top priority: we need to have a federal agency that is responsible for tracking down and bringing to justice people involved in illegal gun sales that also has the ability to do that job. Because right now we don't.

I HIGHLY recommended that everyone listen to this week's episode of The Constant, entitled "Chicago". Mark Chrysler, host of The Constant regularly puts out what has to be one of my top three podcasts of all time. And this episode is right up there

https://www.constantpodcast.com/

It is absolutely worth an hour of your drive time. But he presents how it came to be that the ATF is the ONLY federal agency that has jurisdiction over guns, and simultaneously, it has almost no funding, manpower , tools or even authority to do the primary thing it is tasked to do: track and regulate illegal firearms.

Did you know that ATF agents are not allowed to carry guns or badges? That today the Senate confirmed the first director the agency has had in 7 years? That it is only is recent years that the ATF has been allowed to use computers to record tracking information about illegal guns, and even then they are only allowed to make pdf scans of paper documents and are now allowed to organize them in any way that is searchable? There's so much more.

So my new top priority for dealing with gun violence is fully funding the ATF and giving them the tools and the authority to do their job. Or else disband the ATF and fold their responsibilities in with the FBI, Homeland Security, NSA, Secret Service, whatever, as appropriate.

Now this episode just dropped today, and I am easily swayed, so my opinion will likely evolve with more time and more information, but this is all mind-blowing to me.