SPECTER WANTS TO SCRAP ATF

Hoping to light a fire under his fledgling presidential campaign, Arlen Specter said today that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms "has outlived its usefulness" and should be disbanded. Specter chaired the U.S. Senate committee that investigated the siege at Ruby Ridge. "This is just Specter's way of trying to get on the evening news," reports TIME's Elaine Shannon. "He doesn't have the political support to pull it off. Plus, the ATF has very powerful allies with the gun manufacturers, the alcohol industry, and the tobacco lobby." Shannon says that one reason Specter's proposal has no chance is that the National Rifle Association likes to have the ATF around as an easy punching bag. "Ronald Reagan tried to get rid of the ATF and the NRA had a fit," she says. "If the ATF were disbanded, then their function would largely be folded into the FBI. And the NRA would rather beat up on the ATF than the massive FBI any day of the week."