Back in mid-December, I (belatedly) followed the lead of Red's Trading Post and War on Guns in calling for gun rights activists to make some noise in blocking the confirmation of "Maximum Mike" Sullivan as head of the BATFE. I suggested trying to talk the NRA into joining Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Gun Owners of America, and Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership in opposing Sullivan's confirmation. War on Guns posted an open letter to the NRA to that effect.

To my annoyance, response from the NRA . . . left something to be desired. A couple weeks later, Snowflakes in Hell discovered the NRA's explanation--the NRA's web contact form, apparently, was not working, and we are instead to contact them by email here: ila-contact@nrahq.org--so I did.

Today, I received a response to my email:

Dear Mr. Hofmann,

Thank you for contacting us regarding the nomination of Michael Sullivan as Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). We have very serious and long-standing concerns about some of the practices and enforcement activities of BATFE. NRA has a long history of exposing problems with BATFE, and you can be sure that we are doing everything we can to address these concerns.

NRA's history of questioning BATFE activities predates even the Bureau itself. It began with our coverage of the 1971 shooting of Kenyon Ballew by investigators with the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division, which became the BATF a year later. During the Clinton years, NRA was the driving force behind congressional hearings that exposed the countless missteps and outrageous decisions by federal agents, including BATF agents, that led to the tragedies at Ruby Ridge and Waco.

We remain focused on working to pass legislation to overhaul BATFE and ensure it complies with the law. For example, we worked with the last Congress to hold oversight hearings on BATFE policies and practices, and eventually to pass H.R. 5092 (the "BATFE Modernization and Reform Act of 2006") through the U.S. House of Representatives. This legislation sought to rewrite the system of administrative penalties for licensed dealers, manufacturers, and importers of firearms, to prevent the all-too-common situations where BATFE has punished licensees for insignificant technical violations, such as improper use of abbreviations, or filing records in the wrong order.

In December 2007, that bill was modified and merged with legislation that makes technical changes to federal firearms laws, including rolling back unnecessary restrictions, correcting errors, and codifying longstanding congressional policies in the firearms arena, into H.R. 4900 (the "BATFE Modernization and Reform Act of 2007"). For information on H.R. 4900, please go to: http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Fe...d.aspx?id=3327

Finally, it is important to note that as a direct result of NRA-ILA's lobbying efforts, the BATFE Director must now be confirmed by the Senate, rather than simply appointed to that position, allowing for a higher level of accountability for the agency.

Thank you for contacting us. For additional information, please see NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox's letter to Acting Director Michael Sullivan.


NRA-ILA

That letter, by the way, can be found (in pdf format) here.

Well, I appreciate the reply, but are they going to oppose "Maximum Mike's" confirmation, or not? It seems that on that little detail (the entire point of the correspondence), the response is still this.

(Source Link)