Free Republic

There are so many curious aspects to the Gunwalker scandal. There are well over a thousand smoking guns still out there, somewhere. All of which prove that the ATF “lost control” of Operation Fast and Furious. But there is no single piece of evidence that answers the fundamental question about Uncle Sam’s gun running black bag job: why? What was the point of allowing bad guys to buy guns? The ATF claims they were going after the “big fish” controlling the U.S. gun stores-to-Mexican drug cartel weapons trade. That hardly seems likely—as there were no big fish to be gotten....

Why a gunrunning scandal codenamed “Fast and Furious,” a program run secretly by the U.S. government that sent thousands of firearms over an international border and directly into the hands of criminals, hasn’t been pursued by an army of reporters all trying to be the next Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein is a story in itself. But the state of modern journalism aside, this scandal is so inflammatory few realize that official records show the current director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), B. Todd Jones — yes the individual the Obama administration brought in to...

You got our gun control regulations through! Great job! Here's promotion! ATF agents involved in Operation Fast and Furious who should have been fired by now for putting over 2000 high powered weapons into the hands of ruthless Mexican drug cartels, on purpose, have been promoted. Yes, promoted. Only in government can you have blood on your hands and get a pay raise and moved from the Phoenix Field Office to a cushy office in Washington D.C.The three supervisors have been given new management positions at the agency's headquarters in Washington. They are William G. McMahon, who was the ATF's...

Federal lawmakers are backing lawsuits against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) following the introduction of new gun registration requirements in several border states. The lawsuits, supported by the National Rifle Association, aim to stop the ATF from compelling firearms sellers to report multiple purchases. “The ATF has no authority to track the purchases of law-abiding gun owners and the Second Amendment Task Force applauds the lawsuit to stop this effort,” Georgia Republican Rep. Paul Broun told The Daily Caller. The task force is a 13-member, bipartisan group of lawmakers established in 2009. Broun is its co-chair....

Readers of Tuesday’s edition of USA Today were treated to an editorial, a rebuttal by National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and a “hard news” story that, taken all together, make it appear that the newspaper’s editorial board either doesn’t “get it” about Operation Fast and Furious, or they are feverishly trying to deflect responsibility. It is not likely Pacific Northwest gun rights activists will buy it, judging from conversations on the Northwest Firearms and WaGuns forums. In the story, focusing on the most prolific Fast and Furious suspect, Uriel Patino, the newspaper clearly points to the culpability...

Two weeks ago, concerned about news reports that President Obama would order the investigation of citizens buying two or more rifles at a time, a licensed Texas gun dealer contacted his local Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) official to find out if the reports were true, so he could be in compliance. The ATF official assured him that he was aware of such legislation having been considered, but added, “The law is not going to pass, and we can’t enforce something that isn’t law.” This week, however, gun dealers and pawnshop owners across the country received a...

PHOENIX, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- Effort to Bypass Congress Is Illegitimate, Experts Say Similar Laws Have Required Bills, Open Debate and Recorded Votes. The news Media is Asleep at the Wheel, Reporting Without Questioning. The Firearm Owners Protection Act Bans Such Proposals Altogether and Congress has Already Rejected Reporting for Long Guns. If this stands up, limits on power fall apart — Is that the true goal of Project Gunrunner? The effort by the Obama administration to establish new gun law by executive order is not a legal method for enacting law in the United States, according to Alan Korwin, a national...

Since its modern mutation in 1968 (via the “Gun Control Act of 1968), and with an infusion of power to it in 1972 by Treasury Department Order No. 120-1, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) has amassed a truly sordid record of “gun control.” Although it’s website somewhat outlandishly claims a history going back to 1789, BATFE’s modern roots go to its failed attempts at the enforcement of Prohibition (another stupid idea from the federal government). There’s hardly anything as pathetic as a bloated government agency, in search of a mission. So the “BAT” got their...

In the wake of swelling outrage over the Obama administration’s fatally botched Fast and Furious straw gun purchase racket, the DOJ is punishing the very whistleblowers who protested the scheme in the first place. This is a head fake. Instead of exercising more control over lawless bureaucrats within its own agencies, the Obama administration is tightening its grip over law-abiding gun shops: As a backlash mounts over the government’s failed Fast and Furious gun-tracing operation, the Justice Department will begin requiring firearms dealers in California and other border states to alert officials anytime they sell more than two semiautomatic rifles...

When the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee released a report -- “The Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious: Accounts of ATF Agents -- it infuriated law enforcement officers and American citizens across the country. One police commander in New Jersey told Law Enforcement Examiner, "We need to get to the bottom of this renegade operation fast. I am furious that our government actually contributed to the killing of two American law enforcement officers -- one in the U.S., the other in Mexico." The at times shocking report includes testimony from four Bureau of...

The National Rifle Association plans to sue the Obama administration over its new gun-reporting requirement in four states bordering Mexico. On Monday, the Justice Department said it would require firearms dealers in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to report multiple sales of certain semi-automatic rifles to the same person within a five-day period. The goal is to stop the illegal flow of weapons to Mexican drug cartels, said Deputy Attorney General James Cole. The new reporting requirement applies to semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines and calibers greater than .22. Such weapons, Cole said, "are highly sought after by dangerous...

WASHINGTON -- In an effort to stem the illicit flow of weapons into Mexico, the Justice Department announced Monday that all gun shops in four Southwest border states will be required to alert the federal government to frequent buyers of high-powered rifles. The new policy comes amid criticism of a failed federal probe aimed at dismantling large-scale arms trafficking networks along the Arizona border with Mexico. In the probe, called Operation Fast and Furious, several agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives say they were inexplicably ordered by superiors to stop tracking some small-time "straw" buyers who...

The unfolding scandal over a gunrunning investigation allegedly botched by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could do what years of criticism of the long-beleaguered agency never quite accomplished — result in its demise. That, at least, is the view of some former ATF employees and advocates on both sides of the gun control debate who have watched the agency struggle to contain the damage from an operation intended to trace the traffic of illegal guns to Mexico that has reignited the harsh criticism often directed at the ATF in the past. The agency, which moved from the...

The scope of Eric Holder's disastrous 'Fast and Furious" ATF operation just keeps expanding. Now a single traffic stop in Phoenix has revealed 43 weapons with serial numbers traceable to the the ATF scandal - taken from 4 illegal aliens arrested in the stop. How many guns has this Administration put in the hands of gangs throughout the U.S. How many children will die in drive-bys using weapons Holder GAVE to criminals? And with the ATF Director now saying the DoJ obstructing the investigation, the House GOP must not stop until all responsible are rotting in jail. And what did...

The Justice Department is obstructing the congressional investigation of a U.S. law enforcement operation intended to crack down on major weapons traffickers on the Southwest border, according to the embattled leader of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Ken Melson, the acting director of the ATF, lobbed the accusation when he sneaked in for an interview with congressional investigators on July 4, two days ahead of his scheduled interview with the inspector general about the operation known as "Fast and Furious," Fox News has learned. "If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively...

http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-national/melson-sick-to-stomach-over-gunwalker

After yesterday’s news of the deal between Senators Pat Leahy and Charles Grassley to get documents and testimony from ATF chief Kenneth Melson on Operation Fast and Furious, it seemed as though Democrats might finally take the scandal of the gunrunning fiasco seriously. Alas, Elijah Cummings and House Democrats appear uninterested in abuses of government power, incompetence, and potential cover-ups at AFT and the Department of Justice. In fact, they want to turn the probe into an argument for expanding government control of firearms: The top Democrat on a House investigative committee is broadening an inquiry into a botched gun-tracing...

The Obama administration is in talks this week with the man who could replace the current head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a man gun-rights groups have railed against as being hostile to their cause. Andrew Traver was nominated in November by President Barack Obama to become ATF director, but the National Rifle Association has stalled his appointment, citing his anti-gun rights stance. Traver, who now heads the ATF’s Chicago field office, is to meet Attorney General Eric Holder and top Justice Department officials this week. Traver’s visit was seen at the Capitol as the...

“Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated.” –Special Agent John Dodson ATF Phoenix Field Division. Damning new evidence from Capitol Hill shows that ATF Directors and Justice Department Officials knew about and encouraged the purposeful trafficking of thousands of weapons across the southern border, despite strong objections from ATF agents. Thousands of innocent lives were taken as the result, including those of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and ICE Agent Jamie Zapata. New emails released by House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa show that ATF Director Kenneth Melson...

In riveting testimony on Capitol Hill Tuesday, one federal agent stated simply, "Someone was going to die."And a federal agent did - from guns supplied in the so-called "gunwalking" scandal that CBS News first reported. Those hearings, involving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), were to resume Wednesday. CBS News Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson - who broke the story in February - reported on "The Early Show" Wednesday that three sitting ATF special agents who helped blow the whistle on the controversial operation were slated to be the first to testify at Wednesday's session.Congress starting ATF "gunwalker scandal"...