By Jeff Davis. The U.K. Independent reports: “The lethal fallout from a botched operation by the US Department of Justice which allowed almost 2,000 illegally purchased firearms to be transported from the streets of Arizona to drug gangs in Mexico has been laid bare in a scathing Congressional report, which concludes that it resulted in countless deaths.”
No one even knows exactly what the point of this operation was. Did they want to trace where these firearms went? And why would that information justify putting guns into the hands of dangerous Mexican drug gangs?
The article notes “A mixture of arrogance, over-confidence, and staggering ineptitude by the Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives [ATF] was outlined in a 51-page investigation by two Republican members of a House panel charged with getting to the bottom of what went wrong during a two-year operation called Fast and Furious. It tells how, between 2009 and this year, the ATF instructed agents to turn a blind eye to hundreds of AK-47 assault rifles, sniper rifles, and revolvers purchased from gunshops in Phoenix and en route to Mexico. They hoped to eventually recover them from crime scenes and build a complex conspiracy case that might take down the leaders of a major drug cartel.”
When they say: “Recover them from crime scenes” that means after people had been shot. Anyone else see a problem with this operation? Also, many of the crimes were likely to happen in Mexico, where the BATFE has no jurisdiction. What would the Mexican police think if they found out our government was supplying criminals in their country with guns?
The Independent goes on: “In the event, the operation resulted in the arrest of a handful of small-time crooks. But it exacerbated an already-huge spike in violence on both sides of the border. Two of the guns allowed to ‘walk’ into the hands of criminals were used in a shoot-out that killed a US border patrol agent, Brian Terry. The report describes his death as a preventable tragedy, detailing how many of the ATF agents involved in Fast and Furious began to object to what they saw as the reckless nature of the operation, which conflicted with all known protocol and may turn out to have been illegal But when they raised their concerns, they faced punishment and retaliation from their superiors.”
This operation began in 2009 when Democrats were in power under Obama’s watch.
The Independent goes on: “In total, agents watched at least 1,730 guns flood on to the black market, knowing they would be used to commit murders and other violent crimes. Their concerns about the policy were ignored. In one email to field staff printed in the report, ATF supervisor David Voth suggested that staff who objected to his orders would be fired. ‘I will be damned if this case is going to suffer due to petty arguing, rumours, or other adolescent behavior,’ he wrote. ‘We are all adults, we are all professionals, and we have an exciting opportunity to use the biggest tool in our law-enforcement tool box. If you don’t think this is fun, you are in the wrong line of work, period!’”
So giving weapons to criminals and waiting to see what happens is “fun”. Why couldn’t our government take those 1,730 guns and give them to poor law-abiding Americans, who were living in bad neighborhoods, right here in the US. That way those Americans could defend themselves from criminals. I suppose that would make too much sense.
