Free Republic

In late April, this column reviewed “Guns across the Border,” the inside account of the Operation Wide Receiver “ by Mike Detty, the confidential informant working with the government in what he thought would be a way to fight cartel purchasers, but which turned out to instead be a “gunwalking” debacle predating Fast and Furious. With full disclosure that I wrote the introduction to Detty’s book (with a foreword by CBS News correspondent and Emmy/Edward R. Murrow Award-winner Sharyl Attkisson), I outlined the reasons why I believe it is an important key to understanding how ATF is run at several...

Atlanta GA --(Ammoland.com)- Mark Walters and AAR bring Tucson gun dealer and author of the riveting book, Guns Across the Border to Armed American Radio listeners nationwide, Sunday 4/28/2013. Mike exposes his undercover involvement in Operation Wide Receiver, the precursor to Operation Fast and Furious. Mike will join regular AAR contributor, David Codrea for a riveting full hour to discuss his perilous three-year participation in the ATF “gunrunning” operation. Syndicated nationally and distributed by the Salem Radio Network, Armed American Radio airs every Sunday on over 177 affiliates in hundreds of cities across American including the digital Cable Radio Network....

“Operation Wide Receiver,” a precursor to “Operation Fast and Furious” wherein U.S. guns were bought by straw purchasers and “walked” under the noses of ATF investigators into Mexico, has been the subject of numerous Gun Rights Examiner reports. The central figure in those reports was Mike Detty, a gun writer, a firearms dealer, and the confidential informant who literally risked his life over the course of years to do what he believed was right, only to find the obvious criminals weren’t the only ones he couldn’t trust. Detty has written about his role in a book that’s so new it...

The Office of Inspector General report on Operation Fast and Furious “gunwalking” released Wednesday included a significant portion of its findings discussing the Operation Wide Receiver gun trafficking investigation from the previous administration, including numerous references to “a Tucson-based FFL” acting as a “Good Samaritan informant” who had contacted ATF over a suspected straw purchaser and who then agreed to assist the Bureau in obtaining evidence. Regular readers of this column know that individual was Federal Firearms Licensee Mike Detty, the subject of numerous Gun Rights Examiner reports that have now been substantially corroborated by this week’s OIG release. Responding...

“I was invited to speak with two investigators from the Office of Inspector General regarding the gunwalking scandal and general abuses of the ATF and DOJ,” Mike Detty, a central figure in Operation Wide Receiver due to his work as a confidential informant has told Gun Rights Examiner. “Eager to help I met with them and also provided all copies of recordings, journal entries, photos etc. I was determined to see justice done.” “Imagine how surprised I was when one of the investigators informed me that my materials had all been turned over to Laura Gwinn at DOJ-one of the...

"Hey, baby, let's go to Mexico." On Monday, 13 December 2010, the Washington Post ran a story by Sari Horwitz and James V. Grimaldi entitled "U.S. gun dealers with the most firearms traced over the past four years." It began: A decade ago, politicians and the press routinely reported on gun stores across the nation that had the most traces for firearms recovered by police. In 2003, under pressure from the gun lobby, Congress passed a law that hid from public view the government database that contained the gun tracing information. The Washington Post has obtained the names of the...

It has become clear that for administration apologists, the favored approach for dealing with the "Project Gunwalker" fallout is to loudly shout "Bush did it too!" (as if that would somehow mitigate the atrocity of our government aiding in the murder two of federal law enforcement officers and hundreds of Mexican citizens). If this had not been obvious before yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder, it certainly is now, with Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) enthusiastically beating that drum. In 75 seconds of pointed questioning of Attorney General Holder (see sidebar video), Senator...

(CBS News) The ATF, the agency that's supposed to stop gun smuggling, turned a blind eye for years, as hundreds of guns "walked" across the Mexican border, CBS News has learned. In a report on "The Early Show," CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson said a confidential informant has come forward "with a fascinating story of how U.S. agents began letting guns 'walk' across the Mexican border - more than four years ago." ATF "Fast and Furious": New documents show Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed in July 2010 Gun enthusiast and licensed dealer Mike Detty said he was working...