Weaponized ATF
What’s a politician to do when it’s clear that people will vigorously resist attempts to restrict their lives? Well, you could empower government officials to arbitrarily punish anybody who might help them exercise their freedom. That’s the approach favored by three Democratic members of Congress, who appear to see the path to limiting private firearms ownership in harassing gun dealers and subjecting them to the whims of government officials.
Not that they’re the only legislators to wield regulations as bludgeons, but it’s always a lousy idea.
Ostensibly, the “Keeping Gun Dealers Honest Act” (a name that maintains the congressional tradition of pompous bullshit) is aimed at “gun dealers who engage in illegal sales practices,” which is to say it’s supposed to make it more illegal to do illegal stuff. This isn’t a new practice—Representatives Ted Deutch (D – Fla), Jim Langevin (D – R.I.), and Gwen Moore (D – Wis.) are hardly alone among lawmakers in thinking that what the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world (although we should take a few countries’ official numbers with a grain of salt) needs is more people behind bars. And these three are also in good company in thinking that augmenting legal penalties with arbitrary harassment is the key to a better world.
Read the rest of the article: https://reason.com/archives/2018/06/13/unable-to-ban-guns-lawmakers-want-to-wea