Fireman Arsonist

Thursday 8 December 2011 - Filed under Uncategorized

New evidence in the Fast and Furious scandal linking the operation, which intentionally had gun shops sell guns to known gun runners who would bring them back to cartels in Mexico, with the explicit goal of enacting harsher gun control laws. Via CBS News:

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation “Fast and Furious” to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.

In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the “big fish.” But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called “gunwalking,” and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

ATF officials didn’t intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called “Demand Letter 3”.

[. . .]

“It’s like ATF created or added to the problem so they could be the solution to it and pat themselves on the back.”

Any bets on how many involved in what is clearly a political scandal that surely goes much higher up the chain than a few guys at the ATF go to jail? I’m saying zero.

2011-12-08  »  madlibertarianguy