Book Review: Guns Across the Border by Mike Detty

Gun Watch ^ | 3 July, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Every Federal Firearms License holder and second amendment activist should read this book.  

Guns Across the Border, The Inside Story more than meets the expectations prompted by the title.   It is an intensely personal insider look at what happened in the "Wide Receiver" gunrunning investigation that was the predecessor to the Fast and Furious scandal.  I met Mike Detty at the 2014 Shot Show in Las Vegas.   He struck me as a quick witted individual with a good head on his shoulders.    Mike Detty was at the core of the Wide Receiver ATF gunrunning investigation.

The book is an incredible, true adventure story about the authors journey from bored, depressed, naive, patriot to seasoned and cynical confidential informant.    Most of the larger gun deals were done out of Detty's own home.   There he recorded the illicit gun buyers and conducted negotiations.  He often took instructions from ATF agents on his cell phone in the middle of a gun sale.   Mike Detty learned important lessons along the way, lessons that you can benefit from.   The book is 264 pages long.   I found it hard to put down.  

Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned was that if you become involved in a government investigation, keep your own records!  Document everything.   Keep multiple copies and do not trust that you will be taken care of.    Mike Detty took copious notes and meticulously documented everything.    It shows.   The book accomplishes the difficult task of telling real life events in detail without becoming boring or repetitive.

You will not find superheroes, or super villains.   You will encounter people that you could find in your own life.    I found many "There but for the grace of God, go I" moments in the book.   I found it easy to relate to Mike.   Detty shows how simple it is for a situation to keep escalating, step by small step, until you are where you never thought you might be.  If you ever think you might have an interaction with federal law enforcement... read this book. 

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

[marktwain]

I found the Mike Detty and I had some things in common.

[Thank You Rush]

Thanks....My husband’s birthday is next week and I didn’t have a clue what to get for him. This did the trick.

[marktwain]

I believe that he will enjoy it. I did. The book shatters the pretense of government competency.

While the stated objective was to “take down a cartel”, with the secondary objectives being to confiscate mansions, yachts, and money, no one ever explained how running guns would actually accomplish that end.

Objectively, the whole operation accomplished little except to help facilitate some lower level operatives transfer some guns to Mexico.

When you have the resources of a cartel, there are many other ways to obtain guns if you want them. Cartels are essentially proto-nation states or tribes, often with the resources of small nations. They could easily bribe other nations officials, obtain weapons from failed states around the world, set up their own manufacturing facilities, or buy existing manufactures in other countries. Spending a couple of hundred thousand dollars on buying guns from a dealer in Tucson is chump change for them.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Forward by Sharyl Attkinsson, introduction by David Codrea. Probably worth the price for that alone. Looks like good summer reading.

[Thank You Rush]

“”I believe that he will enjoy it. I did.””

No doubt he will but at the same time it will raise his already high blood pressure. He really doesn’t need much more to get on his soap box. I’ll just plug my ears!

[HiJinx]

Good book! Mike signed a copy for me at a gun show here in Sierra Vista, AZ, last year.

I found out several things I didn’t know about the ATF scheme; things the media failed to make known.

[Twotone]

I just finished ‘One if By Land’ about the border. The last chapters were about Wide Receiver & Fast & Furious. It is shocking what is going on with the cartels, & how our gov’t is dealing with the situation. Just about everyone in management at ATF & Border Control needs to be shown the door.

Ranchers, gov’t agents & politicians are being told ‘silver or lead’ - take a bribe or die. It’s amazing how many resist when the odds are they’ll get no help from their own gov’t.