Posted on 03/10/2011 3:17:48 PM PST by neverdem
A major scandal is developing around a signature U.S. effort to track and stop the flow of illicit weapons to Mexico, as officials at the Department of Justice close ranks, hoping to cover up an investigation critics say is responsible for an untold number of dead.
The investigation was known as Project Gunrunner -- a joint task force headed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Department of Justice -- that took place in 2010.
It was conceived after the bureau was criticized for not conducting more complex investigations on straw buyers -- people who were allowed to purchase guns legally in the U.S.-- who illegally transport guns into Mexico and sell them to cartels.
So rather than just take down low-level straw buyers here and there, the agency hoped by ‘letting the guns walk’...
--snip--
Here is how sources say it worked: Arizona gun stores sold weapons to suspected straw buyers -- in some cases - 10 - 20 - 30 - AK-47s to the same person over just a few months.
--snip--
Therefore, while gun stores had the freedom to sell as many guns as they wanted to any single buyer, at no time did agents tell owners to ‘break the law.’
Already sources say those guns can be traced to hundreds of robberies, rapes and murders. Critics say ATF knowingly allowed those sales to take place and failed to make arrests of known smugglers, thereby intercepting the guns before they crossed the border.
"They would tell us -- we would say -- 'do you want us to stop selling?…is there something we should do here? and they would say "No, no, no -- continue selling -- just tell us after the fact," said Brad Desaye, owner of J & G Gun Sales in...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
L
Does anyone know if this Project Gunrunner is still going on?
Has AFT stopped it?
I hope these gunstores kept records of their conservations with BATF and was also keeping a legal counsel advised. Up until now the gun store operators have been painted as the bad guys.
Sniips: Gillette said he was not at the meeting, could not discuss any details and quickly ended the call. There are unconfirmed reports from several sources that Gillette has hired an attorney; one of the issues he could have put to rest.
ATF insiders have confirmed there was a meeting Monday and that Gillette was not present.
I thought the BATF said this whole story was made up. marktwain posted about 15 different stories with the BATF denying they did anything like this.
It seems Mexico is asking questions:
Congress asks Mexican Government to explain role in US operation
Snips: Over the weekend, Mexico said it asked the United States for an official explanation of why U.S. agents allowed the smuggling of guns into the country.
“The (officials’) appearance is so that they can pinpoint what they knew or did not know about this operation. The only hard facts we have at this time are that no Mexican agency knew about the case,” Cerda, a member of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said.
As soon as I read about operation “gunwalker” I knew that the ATF had planned the whole thing in order to discredit gun stores and to push more gun grabbing legislation. They were getting no where with their BS about guns being shipped to Mexico so they made sure plenty of them made it down there. The whole plan blew up on them and now they are trying to play CYA.
The traditional BATF response to unfavorable press like is to burn down a church with everyone inside.
I believe, too, this was aimed at the 2nd Amendment.
Geez, second typo today.
I sure wish FR had some sort of edit feature available to posters.
I had the same suspicion as you did. These guys are so transparent in their corruption and abuse of power.
Real people died so these guys could manufacture a crisis to suit their ideology.
I remember watching the congressional hearings on Ruby Ridge.
To sit there and listen to how the ATF and FBI conducted themselves during that entire episode was appalling.
I seriously doubt that much has changed.
The Leftists still pray to the lord of Iran-Contra.
Payback is a biotch.
I don’t know.
“Here is how sources say it worked: Arizona gun stores sold weapons to suspected straw buyers — in some cases - 10 - 20 - 30 - AK-47s to the same person over just a few months.”
Was there not a one-gun-a-month law on the books a while back, or was that just state-by-state ?
It's state by state. SC repealed theirs. One-gun-a-month is de facto registration.
A journalist’s guide to ‘Project Gunwalker’-Part One
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/a-journalist-s-guide-to-project-gunwalker
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