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Andrew Traver: Is Obama's choice for ATF chief an 'antigun zealot'?

Obama's nomination of Andrew Traver to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reignites concern that the White House wants to whittle away at gun rights. The last time that happened, Americans armed up.

By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer posted November 19, 2010 at 1:07 pm EST

Atlanta —

ATF special agent Andrew Traver, who last year let a TV reporter fire an AK-47 from her hip to demonstrate the weapon's lethality, is set to become America's chief firearms inspector. But Mr. Traver, currently the Chicago ATF chief, faces a tough nomination battle as gun-rights groups amass their forces in opposition.

The nomination of the Naperville, Ill., native to be top gun cop is applauded by gun-control activists, who say the 5,000-employee ATF has lost ground in its regulation of the $28 billion US firearms business, having labored under interim directors since 2006.

But the idea of an ATF director who hails from Chicago, a city without gun shops, and who has conflated black market automatic weapons with legal semi-automatic "assault-style" rifles is causing Second Amendment defenders to worry that President Obama intends to blast away at gun rights by force of bureaucracy, if not law.

"This is a demonstration that Obama has the same attitudes about Second Amendment rights now as he did [when he was an Illinois state senator], which is quite hostile," says Dave Kopel, research director at the Independence Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Golden, Colo., that promotes free-market ideas. "He's picked a strong anti-Second Amendment person for an administrative job that has far more influence over the practical exercise of Second Amendment rights than any other job in the country."

Obama's election in 2008 touched off a run on guns, because gun rights advocates perceived him to hold antigun views. Americans spent $11 billion more in 2009 than in 2008 to buy guns, ammo, and gear – even in the face of recession.

Among the estimated 80 million gun owners in the US, many apparently didn't believe Obama when, on the 2008 campaign trail, he said : “I believe there is a Second Amendment right. I think it is an individual right. I think people have the right to lawfully bear arms.”

After it became clear that the new administration wouldn't propose, for example, reinstating the lapsed assault-weapons ban, and after US Supreme Court rulings that buttressed Second Amendment rights, the gun-buying frenzy tapered.

(FBI reports show gun violence in the US has declined, surprising those criminologists who saw the combination of the 2009 gun run and high jobless rates as a recipe for a spike in gun crimes and violence.)

The National Rifle Association and gun rights bloggers panned Traver's Nov. 17 nomination, saying his role as an adviser to an antigun-violence conference attended by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley proves that he's an "antigun zealot." Traver is also involved in the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which lobbies for tougher firearms laws to decrease urban gun violence.

"You might as well put an arsonist in charge of the fire department," Chris Cox, a National Rifle Association spokesman, told the NRA-sponsored radio show "Cam & Co."

But Traver also has pluses as a nominee. He has a moving personal story about surviving a serious illness and returning to duty, a recovery helped along by Ken Bennett, who served as director for then-Senator Obama's Illinois office. Gun smuggling on the border, especially the flow of arms from the US to cartels in the Mexico drug wars, has also piqued concern about the ATF's effectiveness.

Traver has appeared on TV to raise awareness about gun violence – in one case helping a TV reporter rapid-fire bullets from a machine gun that is not legal to sell in the US. His main legacy, perhaps, is his work giving final approval to gang sweeps in the Chicago suburbs. He treated gangs "as criminal organizations rather than loose affiliates of neighborhood thugs," writes the Chicago Sun-Times.

Former ATF special agent William Vizzard, now a criminologist at California State University, Sacramento, says Traver's nomination is unusual in that ATF leadership has tended toward Southern and rural, not Northern and urban.

"The real heart of this is, it doesn't really matter that much who the director of the ATF is, given the current state of the law," says Mr. Vizzard. "If you look at the pattern over the last 10 years, [pro-gun groups] won the Heller case [at the Supreme Court], they've gotten permissive carry [rights] in most states, there's no major gun legislation floating around anywhere. And they're still paranoid."

ATF is the lead agency regulating more than 200 million privately owned firearms. It has been involved in some of America's deadliest homeland conflicts, including the incidents at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho in the early 1990s, both of which were cited by Timothy McVeigh as motivation for bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

The big question now is whether the Senate will hold confirmation hearings or whether Obama makes Traver a recess appointment after Congress adjourns, meaning Traver would take office but would face a later Senate confirmation.

But even if the Senate were to vote Traver down, the White House doesn't necessarily lose, says Mr. Kopel at the Independence Institute. Traver's nomination by itself is a "way to improve [Obama's] standing" among campaign donors who strongly favor gun control, he says.

The nomination comes as the NRA is pushing Congress to pass the ATF Reform and Firearms Modernization Act, which would, among other things, force the ATF to ease up on defendants who say they didn't knowingly violate gun laws.

Opponents say the measure would weaken the ATF's ability to prosecute corrupt gun dealers and to stem the flow of black market weaponry. In that light, "this long-needed appointment is welcome news,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, in a statement.

Special agent in gang sweeps to head federal ATF

By Matt Hanley

mhanley@stmedianetwork.com

Nov 18, 2010 06:48PM

The next head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has close ties to the Aurora area.

This week, President Barack Obama nominated Andrew Traver as the next director of the agency commonly known as the ATF.

Since 2004, Traver has been the Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Chicago field division. Traver has been instrumental in the Chicago ATF’s increased involvement in breaking up gangs.

Five years ago, Traver gave the final approval to the police sweep of Aurora’s Insane Deuces, a landmark suburban investigation that treated local gangs as criminal organizations rather than loose affiliates of neighborhood thugs.

In 2005, federal prosecutors charged 16 members of Aurora’s Insane Deuces with racketeering, accusing them of being part of a conspiracy that committed three murders, several attempted murders and more than $1 million in drug trafficking.

Of those 16, 15 were convicted and one man is wanted. Eight of the defendants got life sentences. The rest received at least 20 years in prison.

“Andy (Traver) was an integral player in that,” said William Lawler, who was Aurora’s police chief at the time of the gang sweep. “He clearly understood what was at stake — that this was a pretty monumental thing. The results speak for themselves.”

Lawler said Traver was the consummate professional who was able to work with local and federal agencies without ego.

Traver is a Northern Illinois University graduate, who started as a special agent with the ATF’s Chicago Division in 1987. He later worked in supervisory roles in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New Orleans and San Francisco.

Traver returned to Illinois in 2004, where he directed all ATF programs and oversaw all firearm, arson and explosives investigations, according to the White House.

Copyright © 2010 — Sun-Times Media, LLC
http://beaconnews.suntimes.com/news/2433606-418/traver-atf-federal-agent-aurora.html

Anti Gun Zelot Named to ATF

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/5230-anti-gun-zealot-nominated-to-head-atf

Written by Bob Adelmann   

Wednesday, 17 November 2010 16:43

Rather than wait for the new Congress to be installed in January, President Obama decided to press forward for the Senate confirmation of Andrew Traver for Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). As pro-Second Amendment scholar David Kopel pointed out, “The Second Amendment had a great night on [election day]. Across the nation, the right to arms is stronger than ever, and the stage has been set for constructive reforms in 2011. [In the] U.S. Senate: The net result of Tuesday was a gain of +6 votes on Second Amendment issues…. In not a single U.S. Senate seat did the gun control lobby gain ground.”

Traver was selected for the post back in August, but the announcement was made on Tuesday after the election results were finalized, and the day after the start of the 111th Congress’ lame-duck session. Traver joined the ATF as a special agent in Chicago in 1987 after a stint in the Navy, and has served as a special agent of the Chicago Field Division of the ATF since 2004.

The bureau’s history reaches back to 1886 where the agency was part of the U.S. Treasury Department, but grew substantial legs in 1968 after the Gun Control Act was passed. Following the 9/11 attacks, the ATF was transferred to the Justice Department, where it “regulates via licensing the sale, possession and transportation of firearms, ammunition and explosives in interstate commerce.” The bureau has a budget exceeding $1 billion annually and employs 5,000 including 2,400 special agents.

That’s a familiar name to longtime readers. The Joyce Foundation has pumped tens of millions of dollars into the coffers of gun ban groups over the years. The Violence Policy Center (VPC), an unashamed promoter of a total ban on guns, collected more than $1 million of Joyce money….

The IACP newsletter proudly notes that the Joyce Foundation has made more than $30 million in grants to groups seeking public health solutions that offer the promise of reducing gun deaths and injuries in America.

Some of those beneficiaries of the Joyce Foundation include Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, Handgun Epidemic Lowering Plan Network, the Indiana Partnership to Prevent Firearm Violence, the Legal Community Against Violence, and the Violence Policy Center.

With Traver’s public support of the IACP and his tacit acknowledgement of the funding behind it, it should be no surprise that President Obama has selected him to take the reins at the ATF.

Traver’s most obvious link to those opposed to Second Amendment rights is through his “Summit Membership” in the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). Following their Great Lakes States Summit on Gun Violence in April of 2007, the IACP published its report “Taking a Stand: Reducing Gun Violence in Our Communities.” Included in its many recommendations were the following:

- Establish a “best practices" protocol for voluntary gun surrender programs
- Destroy all firearms that come into the possession of any law enforcement agency (even if such firearms were initially stolen and then recovered)
- Track and follow all private gun sales in a national data base with a mandatory background check on the purchaser
- Limit the sale of “multiple handguns”
- Mandate a “ballistic fingerprint” for every gun that is sold
- Require that every gun come with a lock
- Require that every owner provide for a federally regulated “safe storage” for his weapons, and “prosecute those who fail to comply with [those] safe storage laws.”
- Enact legislation “to allow federal health and safety oversight of the firearms industry.”

Most chillingly, recommendation #22 was: “The federal government should increase funding to the ATF for personnel and technical assistance to combat gun violence.”

Executive director for the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) Chris Cox investigated the IACP after their “summit” and discovered it had been funded by the left-wing Joyce Foundation.

Theodore Roosevelt park elk harvest is about game management

Tribune editorial | Posted: Wednesday, November 17, 2010 2:00 am

The reduction of the elk herd in Theodore Roosevelt National Park has begun. Volunteer sharpshooters have been harvesting animals for two weeks, part of a plan to cull the herd from about 1,000 animals to as few as 100 elk for the 70,000 acre park.

It took too long to get to this point. But now that we are here, the reduction of the elk herd appears to be a well-managed, business-like operation.

Elk, deer and antelope are managed in the Plains states by hunting. When the wildlife population balloons, more tags or licenses are issued. But sport hunting isn’t an appropriate activity in a national park.

With no hunting or natural predators, the elk introduced into Theodore Roosevelt National Park in 1985 have continued to procreate and prosper. They share the park with buffalo and deer, as well as smaller mammals
.

The impact on the vegetation, especially in dry years, has been significant; hence, the need to cull the herd.

U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan and Gov. John Hoeven pushed the Park Service to use volunteer sharpshooters to harvest the elk rather than professional hunters.

Part of the issue might have been costs, but mostly it was a matter of principle for the hunting community. The idea of using volunteer hunters, however, ran afoul the Park Service’s prescription against hunting in the park.

It took seven years and congressional action to make it happen.

The Tribune story Sunday reflected a responsible and well-reasoned approach to culling the herd. Five teams of four with a team leader are used each week.

It’s not a game or sport, but rather workman-like. The harvested animals are field-dressed and packed out.

Thirty-one elk were taken the first week and another 35 the second. The plan is to kill at least 275 elk yet this year.

The size of the elk herd in the park must be managed, for the long-term good of the elk and other animals and plants in the park.

The majestic animals must be treated with respect and dignity in this process.

While some might find the harvesting of the elk repugnant, it is a necessary part of process, one that resembles a natural cycle of life in the wild.

Hopefully, with contraceptives and other less intrusive means, the future elk herd can be managed without shooting the animals or, at least, not in the kinds of numbers contemplated in the next several years.
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_63857200-f190-11df-9125-001cc4c03286.html

Michigan's firearm deer season opens with fewer hunters; DNRE points to day of week, economy

Published: Monday, November 15, 2010, 7:45 PM     Updated: Monday, November 15, 2010, 8:22 PM

 Howard Meyerson | The Grand Rapids Press

Cory Olsen | The Grand Rapids Press

 

Sara Schaefer, the DNRE state wildlife supervisor for southwest Michigan, left, hands a successful hunter patch to Brad Hartwell of Grand Rapids on Monday morning at Barb's Deer Processing in Rockford. This doe was Hartwell's first deer.

Fifty degrees and sunny. It couldn't have been nicer for deer hunting.

But state wildlife officials said it appears that fewer hunters than normal turned out at many West Michigan hunting areas for Monday's firearm deer season opener.

"I counted 165 cars and trucks in the Allegan State Game Area," said Maria Albright with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment. "It was one of my lowest counts for any opener, no matter what day."

Albright said 1998 was a peak year for hunting there. That season opened on a Sunday. The car count, a ritual drive of back roads and two tracks for 30 miles, turned up 299 vehicles in the game area.

In 1999, a Monday opener, there were 263 vehicles parked in the game area. In 2004, another Monday, there were 204 vehicles, she said.

But those were better economic times. DNRE staffers say they are not certain just why the count was down in various areas, but they suspect the reason has two parts: This year's firearm season opener was a weekday during tough economic times.

"I talked with some guys who said they can't get off," Albright said. "Maybe people who are working feel like they shouldn't take the time and are grateful (in these times) for what they have and figure to work hunting in around the job."

That wasn't the case, however, for John Hare, an Otsego hunter and business owner, who dropped a 7-point buck Monday morning.

"It was a beautiful morning. You couldn't have asked for a better opener," Hare said. "I always go out. I didn't feel good, but it was opening day, you have to go out."

Earl Agy, a 40-year-old Allegan hunter, said his shop closed down for the deer opener. It does every year. The four employees all take a week off. Agy shot an 8-point Monday morning while hunting a cut cornfield with his wife Carol.

John King, 33, works on a portable electric generator in deer camp he is sharing with hunting buddies for opening day of the firearm deer hunting season in the Allegan State Game Area on Monday. The morning hunt for the deer hunters was unsuccessful except the old buck skull found in the woods."My wife couldn't get her gun up in time, so I took this one," Agy said. "We'll go back later and see if we can't get her one."

Antlered bucks were plentiful at Barb's Deer Processing in Comstock Park, according to Sarah Schaefer, the DNRE wildlife supervisor for southwest Michigan. Barb's Deer Processing is one of two designated chronic wasting disease check points, along with the Rockford Sportsman's Club.

The sites were set up by the DNRE to collect deer heads for disease testing, following the 2008 incident where a Kent County penned deer tested positive for the disease. Hunters who kill deer in the nine-township CWD surveillance zone within the county are required to bring their deer to one of the two special check stations.

"We saw a lot of nice antlered bucks Monday," Schaefer said. "We had a couple deer come in from Cannonsburg State Game Area and up north from the state forest in Newaygo County, but most were from private lands in Kent County."

Hunters talked of having spent the weekend at deer camp even though the season opened Monday, she said.

"There were a fair number of people who enjoyed it as a Monday opener," Schaefer said. "They felt like they had an extended weekend. They got to play around in the woods and hunt on Monday and go home."

Schaefer said she saw what appeared to be an average number of cars at the Barry State Game Area when she drove through a portion of it Monday morning.

But John Lerg, who managed the West Walker Sportsman's Club in Ottawa County on Monday, said fewer hunters came in than usual. Lerg checked only seven deer as of 4 p.m. Monday. Two of those were bow kills.

He also drove area back roads and counted fewer vehicles than usual parked along road sides. There were also fewer deer tracks on dirt roads -- a predictable sign of deer moving, pushed by stalking hunters.

"Deer movement (on opening day) is connected to hunters moving," Lerg said. "If you don't have hunters moving, you don't have deer moving."

E-mail Howard Meyerson: hmeyerson@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/HMeyerson

Raccoon hunting seems to be making small comeback

Nov 15, 2010  |  

Written by

DICK MARTIN
For The Advocate

It's a little surprising, sometimes, how a man can get caught up in a particular sport, pursue it with enthusiasm for long years, then gradually leave it and turn to something else. It happens, however, and for me raccoon hunting is a prime example. I hunted these little masked bandits in the early 1970s and well into the '80s, and in those days, it seemed everyone hunted coons.

Drive the country roads at night once the season arrived, and you'd find a pickup or two at half the woodlots passed, usually with an open-doored dog box. On quiet nights the lonesome chop of a hard-hunting black and tan or similar breed seemed to resound from all directions.

There was a peak in there when raccoon pelts started selling for $15, even $25 or more apiece, then everybody was out there hunting. The animals were scarce with such heavy pressure and two per night was considered better than average. Then furs went down to almost nothing, and many got out of the sport. These days, only a few diehards roam the midnight woods, and coon are thick as fleas on an old dog. There's no limit on how many can be taken.

I'm sorry the sport has gone downhill, because some of my finest memories are of nighttime coon hunts. It wasn't just a hunt, but a total experience, a blend of many sensory things. Like the smell of kerosene burning in a little lamp, and the rich odors of wet dog and stirred up leaves. I remember the crackle of ice as we walked through half frozen puddles and that first hesitant chop as a fine little hound opened on a hot track.
The stars -- I'll always remember because on a crystal clear, cold night -- shone like diamonds above, and the Milky Way flowed off to the horizon. I'll never forget the frenzied barking when a dog treed his prey either, and we hurried to the scene with flashing lights among the branches. Then at hunt's end, we often stopped at one friend's house who'd pour small treasured glasses of 10-year-old dandelion wine and make a cheese plate with crackers for a late night snack. We'd discuss the hunt, slip pieces to the little mountain cur at tableside, then go home to well-deserved rest. It was a great sport.

There's a chance raccoon hunting is coming back, at least a little. I talked to a fur buyer before the season opened Wednesday, and he said he'll probably be paying $3 to $15 for raccoon depending on size, whether they're prime or not, skinned or unskinned. He thinks that late coon, full furred from cold weather might bring more. That's enough to pay for dog food, at least. I'm also hearing of sponsored hunts again, which can be lots of fun.

We badly need raccoon hunters and trappers these days, and not just for sport, but to trim the animal's populations. They're so thick in places one trapper told me of taking 18 out of a single woodlot, and road kills are everywhere. When populations grow, chances for rabies, distemper and other diseases grow, too, and they can become a real nuisance when they move into your own garage, house, chimney or attic seeking warmth and dog food from Rover's bowl. But while they need to be thinned, that shouldn't be your reason for hunting. A clear night, a good dog, and wind rustling falling leaves should be enough.

http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20101115/SPORTS/11150325

Michigan's firearm deer season begins Monday; about 686,000 hunters expected this year

Published: Sunday, November 14, 2010, 3:15 AM

Michael Wayland | The Bay City Times

 

BAY CITY — Todd McNally stares through the scope on his rifle and within a minute, two shells fall to the floor.

 

Neither shot is a kill shot, but the 42-year-old Essexville resident doesn’t seem worried. Monday — the opening day of firearm deer season — is when the shots count.

“We’ve got a lot of activity up there,” says McNally, as he leaves the shooting range at Duncan’s Outdoor Shop in Bay City. “We’re planning to be pretty successful.”

McNally and his brother-in-law, Jimmy Rezmer, have hunted together for 25 years. This year their hunting spot is in Newberry, located along M-123 in the Upper Peninsula’s Luce County.

“It’s been a big trip we always do,” said Rezmer, 35, of Bay City. “We always look forward to this.”

The two will join thousands of other hunters throughout the state on Monday, as firearm season starts.

State officials estimate about 686,000 hunters will take to the fields and forests in pursuit of white-tails this year. The firearm season runs through Nov. 30.

 

Through Nov. 9, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment are reporting 1.05 million hunting licenses sold for firearm and archery seasons combined. Archery season began Oct. 1 and ends today. A second round of bow hunting is allowed from Dec. 1 to Jan. 1.

 

“We always have a huge surge the weekend before opening day,” said Mary Detloff, a spokeswoman for the DNRE.

Last year, the DNRE sold more than 1.6 million hunting licenses for firearm and bow seasons. It was the first increase in license sales since 2002.

“Our trend, in a lot of instances, has been about 1 percent fewer hunters per year since the mid-90s,” said Brent Rudolph, deer and elk program leader for the DNRE.
Rudolph said hunters can expect bucks in the Lower Peninsula to be in better condition and more visible than they have been the past few years because of an early spring.

Glenn Duncan, owner of Duncan’s Outdoor Shop, 501 Salzburg Ave., said rifle sales aren’t as good as two or three years ago, but the shop’s four rifle ranges — ranging from 50 to 200 yards — have attracted about 120 people per day, since mid-October.

 

“Last year was a good year and this year is looking like a good year,” said Duncan, whose parents, Charles and Pat, opened the store 50 years ago.

 

“We’re not having bad (rifle and shotgun) sales, but the manufacturers thought the sales were going to be higher this year.”

The lower-than-expected sales could have something to do with the popularity of crossbow sales.

Detloff, of the DNRE, said new crossbow hunting regulations, which allow more people the option of using the weapon, have helped increase the number of licenses sold. In the Lower Peninsula, hunters can use crossbows during archery and firearm seasons.

Marty Hornacek, co-owner of Northwoods Wholesale Outlet, 229 W. Fifth St. in Pinconning, said crossbow sales are strong this year. His store has sold more than 1,000 crossbows for this season.

“Hunting’s been unbelievable this year,” said Hornacek, who added 15 models of crossbows after last year’s hunting season. “The crossbow thing is still out of control.”

The DNRE estimates deer hunters contribute $1 billion annually to Michigan’s economy, spending money for gas, food, ammunition, licenses and other necessities for their sport.

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2010/11/michigans_firearm_deer_season.html

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