lmao!

I like it. Folks who buy and sell guns unlawfully, are the people who bring legislation upon the legal responsible gun owners.

Bro"s before xx"s (well you know)

The only thing lower than a criminal is a snitch.

There should be no such thing as a technical felony with a firearm. People that commit real violent crimes with a firearm should be the only people the law addresses.

Felons in possession of firearms, who are only prosecuted if they use it in a violent crime, doesn't sound like greatest idea and I have some experience in the matter.

The problem I see is this. Divorces and breakups can and do bring out the worst in couples with intent to destroy each other's lives any way they can. This tweet is feeding off that. I bet the ATF got plenty of calls because of it, but I also bet most of them are retaliatory and not legit or very weak claims at best. Those calls will get investigated anyway and create all kinds of problems for those people using the investigations it in divorce court, with employers, with child custody issues, and directly to their children. And of those who have children, the children will be the ones who get hurt the most. Not the ex they called on. This was a terrible idea.

Based on my experience that's a reach. If it's a bitter divorce/child custody dispute, any knowledge of illegal activity by the other side will be reported and it doesn't take a tweet to give them the idea.

You don't get it. Once you concede that the government decides they have the right to say who can and can't have a firearm eventually they will get to you no matter who you are. I also ask you to point out to me what other constitutional right laid out in the Bill of Rights you no longer have a right to because of a felony conviction. I'll clue you in, there isn't one.

There are also too many things that are considered felonies. When the second amendment was written there were only nine things that were felonies. If the government stuck to prosecuting people for things that are actual crimes instead of making up tens of thousands of laws that create new crimes I wouldn't have a problem barring felons from owning firearms. You also realize that the gun control act very specifically says that certain felons are allowed to have guns, White Collar felonies don't bar you from Firearms ownership once your time is served. Under the law Bernie Madoff would have been allowed to own a firearm again once he completed his prison sentence and his term of supervised release. I'd also like to point out that the government itself through Civil forfeiture now takes more from people every year than all normal criminals do in the United States in a given year and that's been the case for the past four years now. Texas law even allows felons to own a shotgun on their own property 5 years after a person discharges their prison sentence but that person can still be prosecuted by the feds if caught.

You sound like quite the expert about the codified laws of Texas and the United States as well as law enforcement. Please educate us more.

^^^ A close friend of mine is a US attorney and another was the capital case prosecutor in Dallas for 15 years, not to mention my soon to be brother in law is a BATFE agent. We like to have long talks about this subject not to mention my love of reading case law about this kind of thing and I have a near photographic memory for the written word. It is a subject that I have devoted a great deal of time studying over the past 35 years.

The police don't write the law and the word police itself is derived from the word policy. The police are there to enforce policy and don't get to pick whether or not something is right or wrong. Basically they do what they're told by civilian leadership and legislatures. They don't even get to prosecute a case themselves and frequently are quite ignorant of the law outside of basics.

That's about what I figured.

The add is targeting revenge minded persons to give up a former partner. You really don't think a vengeful person would embellish claims they think the person has sold or bought some guns illegally hoping it will make that persons life miserable or help come out ahead in a divorce. Things like that happen in divorce all the time. False accusations of neglecting abusing children, or alcohol or drug problem, spousal abuse, and on and on with all kinds of things. False accusations are not a reach. It really happens and it is just one word against another. Only this new one is not some far out there idea out of the blue. The ATF is pretty much inviting people to swat their ex for revenge, not because they are doing something illegal and the right thing to do. Read the tweet. It was their reach, not mine.

Am I the only one who took this as more of a joke?

I can see multiple sides to the ad. But...I don't live to come on here and argue.

Our gov't is the biggest illegal arms dealer on the planet, oh the irony.

If you prefer I can post links to the actual laws and case law that supports what I'm talking about. You also completely ignored the second half of my post.

Post up...

Completely agree with you -- it will come out if true during divorces, separations, and custody hearings because it contributes to the character of the other party.

Since we agree on that, wouldn't Sniper John's point hold true that this tweet is just begging for revenge/retaliation since if it was real it would have come to light without the call-out?

Hell hath no fury...

My first though was that this was probably not real, but it was a real tweet. Scroll to Feb 14.
https://twitter.com/atfhq

Turns out some other law enforcement agencies have been doing the same thing on Valentines asking people to give up former partners who have outstanding warrants.

well next year start a media blitz for former partners to post uncover ATF agents

Incorrect, all felonies are the same under that statute.