A new federal law barring those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from owning guns could create an onslaught of enforcement problems, a federal law enforcement official says.
What will happen when the victims start calling, insisting that officers take firearms away from their abusers, John Magaw, director of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, asked a House panel Tuesday."If we don't do it and someone gets killed as a result of it, we might be left holding the bag," Magaw said. "I don't know if you want ATF to handle these cases, but I don't know how we get out of it."
The lack of similar state laws means that "in almost every state, ATF is going to be the enforcement arm of first resort," he said, but the bureau may not have enough people to do the job.
About 10 law enforcement officers in the Treasury Department have lost their own gun-carrying rights because of the law.