“BATF is a bureaucracy that has outlived its mission. Prohibitionist ended a half century ago. Eliot Ness is no longer needed to chase down gangsters and their untaxed profits from bootlegging. Today no one smuggles tobacco. Treasury agents no longer have anything to do but harass innocent gun owners. The committee [Senate Judiciary Committee] concluded that BATF was a rogue operation that trampled all over the Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments. Following the congressional hearings, the Treasury Department was so embarrassed by the documented abuses that it drew up plans to abolish the agency. However, it was unable to do so, because neither the customs Bureau nor the Secret Service would accept the transfer of discredited BATF agents into their organization.”

And now they have "Fast and Furious" to their credit. What a great bunch of guys these criminals really are...NOT.

The BATF may have been wortwhile long ago but now is an agency of thugs. Harassing innocent gun owners is their main function and this rogue agency needs to be abolished.

The primary focus of the ATF was never Constitutional - only to go down hill from there.

Is it a standing army?

Same with the DEA. Both the ATF and DEA were created after prohibition as the ever expanding police state needed new hobgoblins to fight. Rarely if ever is a government bureau closed down -- they just newly declare old activities as 'crimes.' If guns were declared illegal, the size of the law enforcement bureaus would triple. The goal of statism is more and more power and control. This is what happens with the centralization of power -- something the Founders consciously attempted to check with republican government and the recognition of the natural born rights of every individual.