Right now there are two separate issues being debated in Congress and around the country, immigration and gun control.
As per the usual the consistency of logic from the right is about as consistent as an octogenarian with IBS after two bowls of chili.
What's the double-standard you ask?
On the one hand they complain that we can't have any immigration reform until the borders are secure. On the other hand they complain that we can't enforce any new gun control laws because we're not even enforcing the laws we have.
What they ignore is that the reason the ATF isn't enforcing the laws we already have is that they are egregiously handicapped, both through legislation and through a vastly understaffed agency.
The ATF, which is also responsible for alcohol,tobacco and explosives by the way, is staffed with 5,100 total employees and an annual operating budget of $1.52 billion.
Of those 5,100 employees, less than half, 2,400 are active agents. Along with the responsibility of monitoring the almost 130,000 licensed gun dealers in the US, they are also responsible for taking care of people who are illegally trafficking in firearms, or for that matter in alcohol or tobacco.
This is in addition to the fact they don't have a full-time director, or that there are a host of ridiculouslaws passed which are passed for the express purpose of making it almost impossible for them to do their job.
Furthermore they are often smeared by the right in an effort to delegitimize them when they are merely doing their jobs, or when one agent goes off-script.
In spite of this, amazingly, the ATF agent has more than four times the conviction rate of the average FBI agent.
On the other hand, US Customs and Border Protection has more than 58,000 employees, 10 times the number of agents in the ATF and that includes more than 45,000 agents.
And now, border crossings are only 17.5 percent of what they were in 2008. In 2012 there were only 28,400 border crossing
apprehensions.
Amazingly, last year there were more gun deaths, 30,000 than border crossing apprehensions last year.
But what is the thing we need to worry about to the conservative? Giving more importance to the smaller problem that has 10-times the agents, 10-times the funding, and an active director!
I know it's an outlandish thought, but how about giving the ATF the power to do their job if you're going to bitch and moan about them not doing it? How about you just give them a quarter of what the Border Patrol has?