The large number of guns sold is the smoking gun. (no pun intended).
If they had really wanted to just trace how the guns were used, only a handful would have been involved.
The fact that the number is in the thousands clearly shows the intent. They wanted a weapon (no pun intended again) to use against against gun owners.
That in fact is what did happen. The media kept talking about U.S. guns being responsible for crime in Mexico. Suddenly the media has almost completely quit pushing that story.
I wonder why?
It's starting to feel like we're living in the old USSR... or some other thuggy totalitarian state... how did all of this happen?