Remember the ATF / VA gun show hearing that was coming up?

Uncle has a post on it, linking to this article at CNS news. Very worth reading. And it was worse than I originally heard.

It seems that they seized firearms from at least 50 people, and "African-American and female gun buyers in Richmond, Va., and Pittsburgh, Pa., were profiled based on their race or sex and some in Pittsburgh were threatened with arrest by ATF agents for alleged actions that are not violations of law." Now think about that; apparently if you were black or female and bought a gun, you were assumed to be a straw-buyer(of course, the agents couldn't imagine a black or a female making a legitimate purchase of a firearm). At another show, ""When I asked them what their criteria was for the people that they collected the 4473s on at the Pittsburgh show, the answer I got back was, 'If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's a duck. That's all we need,'" McComas continued. "Translation: Under 30 and black, period. That's all they were looking for. Anyone who meets those criteria, they're doing a follow-up on."

Want to bet that the agents doing this crap are some of those who bitch the most about people not 'cooperating' with them? If you knew somebody was treating you and your customers this way, would you want to 'cooperate' with them?

And the final bit: "ATF representatives present at Wednesday's hearing reluctantly identified themselves by raising their hands when asked to do so by Coble. They would not respond to the new allegations raised in the hearing, but referred questions to their press office." At a Congressional hearing, they referred questions to the 'press office'?

I've said it before: every time a bunch of jerks- and I include the supervisors who thought of/approved it- carry out a mess like this, it makes it that much harder for them or anyone else to do a legitimate investigation because it gives people reason not to trust them. Legitimate law enforcement work isn't being done because people are busy doing crap like this. And the usual suspects will probably be heard soon, defending these 'noble federal agents' from these 'horrible attacks on their integrity'.

Maybe if the defenders had more integrity themselves, that'd carry more weight, but it'd still be crap.

More from earlier articles here by Publicola