Free Republic

Following in the well-worn footsteps of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Blueprint for Federal Action on Illegal Guns, this week the Council on Foreign Relations released a memo urging the Obama administration to disregard the will of the American people and Congress and unilaterally enact a series of gun controls. Entitled, A Strategy to Reduce Gun Trafficking and Violence in the Americas, and written by CFR Senior Fellow for Latin American Studies, Julia F. Sweig, the memo pins the ills of Central and South America on U.S. gun owners and urges the president to curb our rights to...

Heads may roll at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as four key officials involved in Operation Fast and Furious may be fired, two more demoted and one suspended and transferred, sources have confirmed to this column. Word first leaked over the weekend about three of the reported firings at Town Hall and Breitbart, which curiously carried much the same text under two different bylines. UPDATE: Fox News, quoting the Wall Street Journal, is reporting however that these dismissals are only recommendations from an agency review board. This column regrets any error. Former Phoenix Special Agent in Charge...

Watergate is arguably the most sinister crime a Democrat can find to present to the American people when trying to silence a Republican. But it pales in comparison to the lies, illegal gun sales, weapons trafficking, and wholesale slaughter of innocents we've seen as a result of Fast and Furious. Think about it -- Watergate was a break-in, the goal of which was secure some "dirt" on Democrats to help Richard Nixon during his re-election bid in 1972. Nixon, the man vilified for it, didn't even know about it until after the break-in had already happened, and his crime was...

Scandal: A Univision special documents how weapons provided by the administration to Mexican drug cartels repeatedly have taken a deadly toll as families on both sides of the border wait for true answers and accountability. We may never know how many deaths, kidnappings and other criminal activities were facilitated by more than 2,000 weapons that were allowed to "walk" into Mexico under the Obama administration's Fast and Furious program, but a Univision special aired Sunday exposes more of the carnage. The special, put together by Univision's investigative unit and aired as a special edition of Univision's "Aqui y Ahora" ("Here...

On January 30, 2010, a commando of at least 20 hit men parked themselves outside a birthday party of high school and college students in Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez. Near midnight, the assassins, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled. Indirectly, the United States government played a...

Exclusive: Bradlee Dean reveals latest revelation in 'Fast and Furious' scandal As we know, Eric Holder’s “Fast and Furious” scheme has sparked outrage among the American people. The DOJ’s “Fast and Furious” operation placed guns into the hands of drug smugglers who have committed crimes through entrapment, which was directly responsible for the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Holder’s ultimate goal was to circumvent his own criminal activity by blaming gun stores in America for selling the very guns that the ATF put in the hands of smugglers. Of course, his plans were botched before he could blame...

John Solomon, writing in the Washington Guardian, is reporting today that B. Todd Jones, the Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), released a video last week to all employees. In the video, Jones warns that there would be “consequences” for any employees who report wrongdoing outside their chain of command. Jones was a federal prosecutor when Attorney General Eric Holder asked him to lead the embattled agency after the Fast and Furious scandal. He is supposed to improve morale and instill a new culture in the aftermath of that scandal. Jones' precise words are:...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: April 16, 2009. This from CNN's website: "Reviving a ban on assault weapons and more strictly enforcing existing gun laws could help tamp down drug violence that has run rampant on the US-Mexican border, President Obama said Thursday. Speaking alongside Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Obama said he has 'not backed off at all' on a campaign pledge to try to restore the ban. It was instituted under President Clinton and allowed to lapse by President George W. Bush. 'I continue to believe that we can respect and honor the Second Amendment right in our Constitution -- the...

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. PICTURES: ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline 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...

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is inviting public comments on its new rule regarding shotguns. It plans to ban them. There will be a ban on imports. (Note: watch prices rise on those already in the USA.) The basis of this ban will be the guns’ semi-automatic status. It the magazine has more than five rounds, the weapon will be banned. Why? Because the BATF designates these as “military.” Somehow, I cannot see Sergeant York with a 7-round shotgun taking on the Germans. Gen. George Patton wore ivory-handled revolvers. I wonder if these are scheduled for a ban....

The Obama administration is threatening to veto the House Appropriations bill, HR 5326 by Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY) because, among other things, it would roadblock a multiple long gun sales reporting requirement in four southwest states for the embattled Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. This new angle should get the attention of Northwest gun owners who faithfully follow the Fast and Furious scandal at WaGuns, Seattle Guns, Northwest Firearms, Shooters Northwest and GunRights Media forums. A message from the Obama administration on the proposed legislation says this:

Print Close Rehberg Amendment Protects Gun Owners from Unauthorized Obama Administration Tracking Policy April 26, 2012 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, successfully offered an Amendment to fight an attempt by the Obama Administration to use an obscure regulatory process to track the purchases of firearms in four border states. Rehberg’s amendment to the FY13 Commerce, Justice and Science House Appropriations Bill would prevent the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) from using federal funds to track the purchases of gun owners who buy multiple rifles within a certain time period. “While President Obama and his allies...

Alaska Congressman Don Young today demanded to know why agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been asking gun shop owners in the 49th State for copies of their gun sales records. As this column reported, ATF agents had contacted gun shops in Anchorage for the bound books which contain information on gun buyers. Federal law prohibits federal agents from doing that, and they know it. Gun rights activists across the Northwest are furious. The situation has caused an uproar in the firearms community, and Young – a member of the National Rifle Association Board of...

<p>One of the most compelling arguments against gun control: laws affecting legal gun purchase and ownership put the government on a slippery slope towards gun confiscation. One of the least compelling arguments against gun control: laws affecting legal gun purchase and ownership put the government on a slippery slope towards gun confiscation. Gun control advocates—and those who view the government as a benign entity—dismiss any mention of creeping tyranny as the paranoid ravings of firearms-fixated members of the lunatic fringe. The ongoing Fast and Furious scandal has highlighted the divide . .</p>

The attorneys of Bill Newell, embattled former ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division, and David Voth, Supervisor of Phoenix Group VII (the group that carried out Operation Fast and Furious), are accusing Senator Charles Grassley and Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa of making “many inaccurate and harmful statements” and “factual distortions against” their clients. In a letter obtained by Townhall, attorney and former Department of Justice Prosecutor Paul E. Pelletier, representing Newell, writes on behalf his defendant to “correct the factual distortions in your staff’s ‘memorandum.’ To be clear, this faulty memorandum and...

President Obama's pick for ATF director, anti-gun Andrew Traver, has been transferred from his position as special agent in charge of the ATF Chicago Field Division, to head up the Denver division. According to sources, the move came after Traver felt frustrated his confirmation for ATF director had been stalled in the Senate for nearly a year. The estimated cost to transfer Traver is nearly a million taxpayer dollars, all because his feelings are hurt. Traver chose to specifically to work in Chicago, (where his buddies Obama and Rahm hang out) and instead of forcing taxpayers to foot the bill...

Attorney General Eric Holder used his testimony before a House committee on Thursday to tout the supposed need for new gun control laws to prevent “gun walking,” or the transportation of firearms across the Southern border. But he – and members of the committee – ignored existing laws that already accomplish Holder’s ostensible goals. “That is why we need a stronger gun trafficking law,” Holder said in response to questions about recourse against officials who signed off on the gun walking tactic. The tactic was integral to Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed the transportation of roughly 2,500 firearms into...

Recently, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. issued a ruling upholding an Obama administration policy that requires federally licensed firearms retailers in states bordering Mexico to report multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles. The case was brought by two NRA-backed firearm retailers and by the National Shooting Sports Foundation acting on behalf of its affected members. Plaintiffs have already filed an appeal—but while we await the outcome, your help is urgently needed in seeking congressional action to end this illegal policy. Devised by Attorney General Eric Holder’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the plan requires all of the...

Whispers of ATF snitches and U.S. vs. Clark. "Hot topics." During the NFATCA meeting, it was disclosed that the ATF, as of last week, has changed its opinion regarding the proper procedure for deactivating a barrel for importation. Previously, ATF issued a letter stating that drilling three holes into the barrel was sufficient. While destroying the functionality of the barrel, it allowed for the barrel to be used in a dummy-gun for a collector, who basically desired a non-functioning replica of a particular firearm. ATF has now announced that it is requiring any such imported barrel to be torch cut...

Thinkstock/Comstock(WASHINGTON) -- A federal judge has upheld a rule proposed by the ATF to track multiple gun sales in Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico in a lawsuit brought by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and two gun dealers in Arizona. Over the summer the ATF announced that it would seek information in those four states on gun purchasers who buy two or more weapons a week for semi-automatic long guns that have a caliber greater than .22 and a detachable magazine. The ATF would require gun dealers to report the sale of multiple rifles with what ATF was calling...