First of all, no offense intended and none taken, ok?
I read your letter from NRA.
Yes. They did consider pushing for disbanding the BATF at that time. As a matter of fact I remember some of the debate/discussion. The reason not to was NOT because they would be
without the bogeyman of the BATF
as you put it, but for multiple other reasons. Killing off the BATF may have been possible, but was not a good solution to the problem. Among the reasons:
1) The abusive personnel would just be moved to another agency or agencies
2) the abusive personnel would likely pollute/despoil other agencies' operations
3) correcting the inadequacies of the current system had better chance of success
4) The "Know thy enemy", and "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" philosophy was considered better strategy.
All of us have a tendency to oversimplify because we never see the big picture. I am probably no exception. NRA works with the big picture daily. I trust them to know better than I do. It's what they do.
Not seeing the big picture makes conspiracy theories plausible and believable. But supporting documentation is scarce, thin and tenuous at best.
The federal bureaucracy is a huge entity that first and foremost protects itself. To cut out a cancerous part of it will just accelerate its metastasizing by spreading the cancer farther through the government. You can't remove it cleanly. The Union and self preservation instinct will seed its personnel far and wide.
It was almost a done deal;
I do not believe this letter supports this assertion very well.
In their letter to you, NRA stated very clearly that F rated Charlie Rangel (the Committee Chair) was not our friend and would be very difficult to work around/with/against. No surprise there.
I don't have any love for BATFE either, but they are certainly not NRA's pet bogeyman some would like us to believe. NRA is not a Conspiracy or Cash Cow. Very few of us know everything the NRA does for us. I am certainly not one of them, but I try to do my part with my limited disposable income by being a Whittington Center Sponsor because I believe it is one of the many great things NRA does and I want to be a part of it.
As previously stated by others much more eloquent than I, it is best to work within the framework that exists and gradually repair what is broken through our legislators.
JMHO and $0.02... FWIW.
Poper
PS: BTW, it may be more difficult to delete ATF than we think. Congress may not appreciate killing off one of their favorite bogeymen and would have to find another agency to investigate then, wouldn't they?
Just a thought.