Well, whattya know; the second guy from the top at BATFE wants to roll back some gun restrictions.  Excerpt:

The second-highest ranking official at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recently authored a proposal to modify and reduce gun regulations in the United States.

The 11-page “white paper,” obtained by the Washington Post and drafted by the ATF’s associate deputy director and chief operating officer Ronald B. Turk, includes but is not limited to the following proposals: removing restrictions on the sale of suppressors; conducting a study concerned with lifting the ban on imported assault weapons; and requiring a higher amount of crime guns to be traced back to specific dealers before the federal government asks for additional information from those dealers.

Turk writes in the introduction to the paper, entitled “Options to Reduce or Modify Firearms Regulations,” that “these general thoughts provide potential ways to reduce or modify regulations, or suggest changes that promote commerce and defend the Second Amendment without significant negative impact on ATF’s mission to fight violent firearms crime and regulate the firearms industry.”

“This white paper is intended to provide ideas and provoke conversation,” Turk continues, “it is not guidance or policy of any kind.”

Turk also reminds that while his paper does not focus on enforcement or regulation, those are still “extremely important” parts of the ATF’s mission.

The Washington Post reports that ATF spokeswoman Jan Kemp said Turk’s proposals do not represent the views of the agency.

“It’s simply his opinion,” said Kemp, “and it’s to generate dialogue.”

Well, it would seem to have succeeded in generating dialogue – I mean, here we are, dialoguing.   So while we’re here, let’s look at the proposals.

1. Removing restrictions on the sale of suppressors.  Hell yeah – we just discussed this recently, so I won’t repeat the arguments, but this is a good idea.
2. Conducting a study concerned with lifting the ban on imported assault weapons.  Also a good idea – the fact is that crimes are almost never committed with rifles of any kind, and isn’t ‘crime’ always the argument of anti-gunners?  Except, of course, when it’s ‘need,’ as in “nobody needs an assault rifle!”  That last is an argument (whether it be made about guns, SUVs or steaks) that is antithetical to liberty, and should be rejected out of hand.
3. Requiring a higher amount of crime guns to be traced back to specific dealers before the federal government asks for additional information from those dealers.  Again, a good idea; gun dealers are already the subject of an extensive background check before becoming gun dealers and periodically again while gun dealers.

Of course, this is just one BATFE guy’s personal opinion, and will likely come to nothing.  Still – it’s nice to see some common sense coming out of the massive Imperial bureaucracy for a change.