I too am sympathetic toward the poor beleaguered workers at the National Tracing Center in West Virginia. I would very much like to give them the opportunity to seek out a more pleasing vocation! This is telling in terms of how the Times views this issue:
Congress’s obstructionism doesn’t end there. Until seven years ago, police were able to consult the A.T.F. archives of gun traces from dealer to owner.
Congress’ obstructionism? So the problem here is that Congress, those damned elected Representatives of the people (at least in theory), are getting in the way of unelected bureaucrats who could just run this state so much more efficiently (Ja Wohl!) if Congress just got out of the way.
we could certainly fund the destruction of all the records. I’d pitch in $20 for that. Let’s take up a collection!
Think of all that $$ and manpower being devoted to figure out the origin and nature of a tool that a killer used.
Sure would rather they worried so much about the killers themselves.
Repealing most or even all of the GCA ’68 would solve this little “problem” that has the NYT so worried.
I think a better German phrase (instead of Ja Wohl) would have been “nicht wahr?”