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Despite gun debate, ATF still boxed in by politics

By Alicia Caldwell
Published October 6, 2013 12:46pm ET
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Despite gun debate, ATF still boxed in by politics
FILE - In this June 11, 2013, file photo B. Todd Jones of Minnesota, President Barack Obama's nominee for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), testifies at his nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. To the committee Jones knowledge that the ATF is "very much in distress". And repairing the agency, which is still boxed in by politics despite the gun debate, has not been easy for Jones so far. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File) | Jacquelyn Martin

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Barack Obama picked B. Todd Jones to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, it looked like the moment had arrived for the beleaguered ATF to reassert itself as an agency with teeth.

It was January, and the nation was embroiled in a rare debate on gun control, the result of the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school the previous month.

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