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July 2011
John M. Browning
An interesting history of the greatest gun designer who ever lived.
Permalink · shooting · Comments (0)
Calguns challenges arbitrary county obstruction of carry permits
The suit is Rossow v. Merced, brought by Jason Davis [thanks for the tip, Gene] and Don Kilmer. Complaint downloadable here. The gist is that Merced County is extensively violating California law by "may issue" permits, refusing to make public its policies on permit issuance, declaring a moratorium on permit approvals, and imposing requirements not allowed under State law.
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (1)
Cert reply brief in Williams v. Maryland
Steve Halbrook and Dan Peterson have filed a reply brief on their petition for certiorari in Williams v. Maryland, which upheld a conviction for carrying a handgun outside the home. When first I heard of the case, I was concerned about the defendant's having to challenge because he hadn't applied for a permit, but it looks as if they nailed that down, tightly.
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (0)
Firearms industry continues to boom
At least, Ruger certainly does!
Permalink · shooting · Comments (2)
Summing it up
From Cyanide and Happiness.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (1)
Wrap up of today's hearings
Here's an interesting slide that was shown. Newell was the head of the Phoenix office. The recipient, Kevin O'Reilly, is the White House's National Security Director for North America.
Some interesting segments from the transcript are in extended remarks, below. The witnesses were Carlos Canino, Acting Attache To Mexico For The Bureau Of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms And Explosives, Darren Gil, Former Attache To Mexico For The Bureau Of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms And Explosives. Jose Wall, Atf Senior Special Agent, Tijuana, Mexico. Lorren Leadmon, ATF Intelligence Operations Specialist, William Newell, Former Atf Special Agent In Charge Of The Phoenix Field Division, William Mcmahon, Deputy Assistant ATF Director, field Operations West.
Continue reading "Wrap up of today's hearings"
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (3)
Gunwalker -- the media dam breaks
So yesterday the WaPo carried a story on Gunwalker, and the world did not end. That must mean it is now a safe topic.... so today
The New York Times gives it space.
So does the LA Times.
USA Today weighs in.
The Toledo Blade's ombudsman outlines the story and concedes the paper should have carried it sooner. "Frankly, while there has been nothing unethical about The Blade's not having covered it, Operation Fast and Furious probably deserves more scrutiny."
If there is a theme to the above (it may be coincidence), damage control seems to have shifted from "nothing was done wrong" to "don't mention the Attorney General or his deputies."
And in the meantime, the House Committee on Oversight releases releases another report, and holds more hearings -- live video here. Just listened to a guy doing damage control, claiming that straw purchasers by definition have a clean record -- which, as posted below, isn't true when the ATF and FBI "fix" the background checks -- and usually get probation -- Federal sentencing guidelines call for 1-2 years in prison for that offense, if first offense.
Mr. Meehan is now questioning former SAC Bill Newell. He's asking who originated the plan. Newell refuses to name a single person, finally says four people in his office did. Did the other agent who testified participate in it? He was aware of it. Mr. Mahon, the "plaza boss." regional head for a cartel, you said he gives orders to buy. Plaza boss is in Mexico, right? Yes. Now, you claim the strategy wasn't to allow guns to go to Mexico. How does that work? Other agencies involved? Yes, ICE, IRS, DEA. Did they know about this program? Yes. Were they aware guns were being walked to Mexico. Witness evades, they were aware of the strategy.
Ms. Burke: was this gunwalking a breach of ATF usual ops? Agent Canino: First time I've heard of it happening in 22 yrs of service with ATF. I initially heard of Agent Dodson's allegations, didn't believe them. Then I saw documents that convinced me he was telling the truth. Other agents say same thing. First time anyone has seen this.
UPDATE: The Christian Science Monitor (which never saw a gun law it didn't like) weighs in with a hard-hitting piece.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (7)
WaPo finally covers Operation Gunwalker
Story here. Some spin, but not so much as might be expected, and at least they acknowledge the story, indeed give it extensive coverage.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
Operation Gunwalker gets even hotter
Fox News is reporting that two of the "straw men" buyers had felony convictions (not to mention outstanding warrants, an indictment, and other details, all of which would be barriers to buying firearms). Yet they managed to buy over three hundred firearms, and pass the background check. Arizona is very good about reporting prohibited persons to the Feds. The probability seems to be that someone "fixed" the background check system so these guys could keep buying arms and running them to criminals.
I'd assume that'd require a high-level "fixer." If this is correct, I think it's clearly aiding and abetting a felony, which makes those guilty liable for the felony itself. Passively observing a felony wouldn't cross that line. Coaxing reluctant dealers to make suspicious sales might cross it. But sabotaging the background check system so that illegal sales are approved is, I think, clearly over the line.
Hat tip to Howard Nemerov and PJ Tattler.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (3)
Second Amendment and Supreme Court confirmations
An article, by Allen Rostron.
Permalink · Supreme Court caselaw · Comments (0)
State Department running guns to Mexico, too?
That's the allegation. Look on the bright side: at least Commerce, Interior, and HUD managed to refrain from gun running. Or haven't been caught yet.
Via Instapundit.
Further thoughts on the Canton shocker
The fellows lawyer posts on Ohioans for Concealed Carry that the City offered to drop charges if he'd give them a waiver of liability, he refused, and they of course had to drop charges anyway. (scroll down to July 13 posting: " At the first pretrial, the prosecutor offered to dismiss all charges for a release of liability (promise they wouldnt be sued). I refused their offer")
1. I'd think they would have skipped that offer, since it sounds uncommonly like extortion to me. We will drop criminal charges if you give us something of monetary value....
2. In a §1983 claim, the person who violated rights is of course liable. The problem is always with proving liability of the City or other governmental unit. The ordinary respondeat superior (the principal is liable for the acts of his agent) doesn't apply, you have to show that the city itself did something that makes it liable. This usually takes the form of arguing insufficient training, or an extensive list of violations so long that violating a right becomes unwritten policy. (And the loss rate here is high). Or ratification -- the city did something that retroactively endorsed the violation, essentially. If you give your agent a bonus for his illegal acts, or a commendation, then you become liable for them.
I wonder if the city's plea offer isn't ratification of the violation. The arrest was the officer's problem, but the prosecution is theirs. They demand something of value from the victim -- specifically, a release from liability for the officer and the city -- as a price for their dismissing. The principal has used its power in order to protect its agent from liability for wrongdoing.
Commenting glitch fixed
Yesterday sometime commenting became impossible -- it wouldn't even let me post test comments. I knew it was a general problem when I didn't wake up to see 10+ spam comments. I fixed it ... when you delete a spam comment, you can also block mention of the urls it's promoting. Sometimes it's a list of a dozen. Yesterday one of those lists must have contained a blank space, I didn't catch it and banned them all... with the result that all comments were blocked, since everything but a one-word comment has spaces. Anyway, fixed it.
It's also possible that that is a new technique for spammers to try to sabotage antispamming. I've seen things like that before. Listing a huge load of completely fake urls, together with the one they want to promote, putting in urls that if banned will stop a lot of legit comments, etc. Lately someone has invented a robot that will insert words from the post title to try to make it sound as if it were a real comment.
Pretty shocking video
Right here. Canton OH police, I'm told. I hope they get rid of the guy, or assign him to some duties where his hairtrigger temper isn't a danger to the general public. He's the one guy in the video whom I'd worry about having a gun....
I'm happy to say that around my parts, if police come up to a stopped car, no reason to believe criminal activity, they'd politely ask what was going on. And if you revealed you had a gun, they'd ask to hold it, and then ask your advice on future gun purchases. I've had it happen. One time the officer asked my advice on buying a 1911, the other time he urged me to get a CCW permit, since they were cheap and easy and then I could carry it anywhere. I forgot ... once when young I was stopped with the whole car full of guns. The officer asked the reason, I said I was moving them from one storage area to another, and he said okay, and gave me a verbal warning about speeding.
Uopdate: the Canton Police Chief's reply, including "The officer immediately being relieved of all duty. The incident has been referred to the Internal Affairs Bureau for what will be a complete and thorough investigation. As bad as the video indicates our officer's actions were, there is a due process procedure to follow." [UPDATE: the page appears to have been taken down]
Hat tip to Ryan Gill, of Georgia Concealed Carry, and to Ohioans For Concealed Carry.
Upcoming hearing on Operation Gunwalker
Announcement from Issa's Committee here. Tuesday, July 26. Witnesses will include AATF's former attache to Mexico, who reported opposed the operation, its Phoenix Special Agent in Charge who' at the center of the operation and reportedly backstabbed the attache, and several others.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
Interesting development in Palmer case
Palmer v. DC is a challenge to DC's effective ban on carrying. CalGuns reports that Chief Justice Roberts just assigned it to a Judge Scullin of the Northern District of NY, sitting in DC by designation.
Several other cases were assigned to him by the same order, so whether this has meaning or not is unknown.
Judge Scullin's Wikipedia page indicates he's from upstate NY, Army vet and reservist, US Attorney under Reagan, appointed to the bench by George Bush, Sr.
Hat tip to reader Nick L. EMT-P
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (1)
Issa and Grassley -- more bombshells
Their latest letter to Justice.
The most impressive revelations are of data that Acting Director Melson gave them. ATF was ready to cooperate until it was gagged by the Deputy Attorney General. They informed the Deputy AG that they had documents that contradicted the "official story" Justice was giving out. A memo describing an important meeting -- held to convince a cooperating gun dealer who was getting worried about allowing all these suspicious gun buys -- was actually written over a year later, after the controversy broke. Melson says there is a memo that is a "smoking gun," which Justice is still refusing to reveal to the Committee.
This is the hottest political story since Watergate ... and of course (with a few exceptions) the MSM is ignoring it. The government itself sets up operations that run thousands of guns to drug cartels, gets two Federal agents and hundreds of Mexican nationals killed, then the coverup goes right up to the Deputy AG (which means it goes at least to the AG: his deputy wouldn't want to be accused of going behind his back), an agency head goes defector. And the MSM is in "move on folks, nothing to see here" mode.
If that weren't enough entertainment for the day, Sipsey Street Irregulars reports on letters that Issa and Grassley asking for information on the murdered Border Patrol Agent and the murdered ICE agent, and data on their paid informants who were part of the gun distribution system in Mexico.
Welcome, Instapundit readers! If a comment gets bounced, try posting without your email address. I had to block gmail, yahoo and a few others due to waves of comment spam, but set it so you can comment while giving no email address at all.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (8)
Gunwalker -- effect on cooperating FFLs
Interesting comment in this chain at CleanUpATF.org. It's about a third of the way down, or you can search for "Ike," Essentially--
ATF uses traces to spot problem dealers. Whatever the reason for the trace, it counts as a "crime gun," and too many traces of those to a dealer marks him as a suspect. The dealers who were cooperating with ATF and making the sales will be flagged for the foreseeable future as massive sources of crime guns.
Moreover, with etrace now available to Mexican and Guatamalan authorities, with every trace they are sent the dealer's name and address, and the buyer's identification. "If the firearm is traced successfully, first purchaser Information is provided, including purchase Date, Full Name and Full Address, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Race, Sex, Social Security Number (may be redacted for certain foreign traces), Drivers License Number, Height, Weight." In short, data that would be an identity thief's dream.
I wonder if anyone cleared that with the Privacy Act? That statute has a variety of requirements, including announcing in the Federal Register all agency databases and their routine uses. It also forbids release of data on a person, with certain exceptions. The one for law enforcement releases doesn't seem to cover this, it allows release "to another agency or to an instrumentality of any governmental jurisdiction within or under the control of the United States for a civil or criminal law enforcement activity if the activity is authorized by law..." 5 USC 552a(b)(7). The data is not being released to an agency "within or under the control of the United States."
And the quote of the year: "In May, 2008, William Newell, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Phoenix Office reported: "When 90 percent-plus of the firearms recovered from these violent drug cartels are from a U.S. source, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to stem the illegal flow of these firearms to these thugs." [and how is that working for you, Bill?]"
UPDATE: reader Ike writes, in a comment the spam filter won't allow:
"f the dealer is out of business, ATF has the complete documentation for
the trace right down to the first retail purchaser - including the
4473. Make no mistake - this is a permanent registration record.
If the dealer is still in business, ATF will call the dealer (or pay a
visit) to retrieve the personal purchaser data from the 4473 form -
which becomes a permanent registration record..
Trace data is available via the internet (through eTrace) to some 33
countries and foreign police departments - not just Mexico and
Guatamala. The countries include: Mexico, Colombia, Suriname, Tobago,
Guyana, Canada, Germany, Bahamas, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Barbados,
Anguilla, Antigua, Barbuda, Aruba, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, St
Vincent, Grenadines St. Lucia, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Panama, St. Kitts, Nevis, several Caribbean police forces,
Britain, Australia, Japan, and Belgium.
ATF has responded to trace requests from over 58 countries, freely
providing personal data on first purchaser American gun owners who are
probably innocent - and certainly presumed innocent."
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (5)
DC is getting desperate....
I'd say setting up an FFL in DC Police HQ, and expediting zoning clearance for any other FFLs, qualify as desperation moves.
Hat tip to Fiftycal from Austin, Texas....
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (9)
Another Bloomberg Mayor is indicted
Snowflakes in Hell reports that Mayor RIchard Corkery, one of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, was arrested for 28 counts of possession of child porn. Reports he was singing "thank heaven, for little boys," are, however, unconfirmed. As Snowflakes in Hell observes, the record of CCW holders compares quite favorably to that of Bloomberg's gang, 12 or 13 of whose members have taken the dive on felonies in the last couple of years. Extortion, bribery, embezzling gift cards meant for the poor, covering up a murder, committing a violent offense while armed, nothing is beyond these sociopaths.
Permalink · antigun groups · Comments (1)
New Illinois license plate
Here it is... The ultimate in custom plates!
Permalink · humor · Comments (2)
Marines switching out SAWs
Story here. I like a lot of its features (as described), but wonder that it couldn't be redesigned to take polymer magazines and a quick change barrel, and perhaps fitted with larger magazine of different capacities so the gunner could alternate 30 round mags and perhaps a 100 round mag as the situation demanded.
Permalink · shooting · Comments (17)
Did Fast & Furious violate the Arms Export Control Act?
First, the Arms Export Control Act, 22 USC §2778.. It authorizes the President to define defense articles and regulate their export. In so doing, he must consider the possibility that export could "support international terrorism, increase the possibility of outbreak or escalation of conflict..."
Those defense articles may not be exported without a permit, issued by the Secretary of State ( Department of State guidelines here), "except that no license shall be required for exports or imports made by or for an agency of the United States Government
(A) for official use by a department or agency of the United States Government, or
(B) for carrying out any foreign assistance or sales program authorized by law and subject to the control of the President by other means."
The firearms involved here were not being exported for official use by an agency, nor as part of foreign aid. This a lot narrower than the GCA exception for acts by a government agency, and for good reason: the purpose of this statute is to control executive agency actions. No gun running to foreign governments or persons without a paper trail (and in cases of large transactions, a prior request for Congressional approval).
Any person who willfully violates these provisions "shall upon conviction be fined for each violation not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both."
There have been some reports of agents having directly transferred firearms to drug cartel buyers, in order to boost their "street creds." That'd clearly be a violation. In other situations, the person who actually exported the firearms would be in clear violation. But what of those government supervisors who allowed the arms to flow -- especially the cases where a protesting FFL was told to sell the guns anyway?
18 U.S. Code §2 provides:
"§ 2. Principals
(a) Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal.
(b) Whoever willfully causes an act to be done which if directly performed by him or another would be an offense against the United States, is punishable as a principal."
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (7)
Long gun reporting requirements imposed
Here's a discussion. They're using the existing regulation on "letter requests," which was traditionally used to require individual dealers with apparent problems to report their sales, rather than to require dealers to report en masse.
It helps if gun policies are written by people who understand guns. It applies to semiauto long guns with detachable magazines that have "A caliber greater than .22, including .223 caliber firearms." The inclusion of .223 indicates that "greater than .22" means as defined in thousandths of an inch, that is anything over .220. So are .22 rimfires covered? Their bore is .218, measured land to land, or ..222, measured groove to groove. To be fair, This is from the proposal; I can't find the final form of the requirement online.
Cert granted in 4th Amendment firearms case
There's a post on it over at the Volokh Conspiracy. There appears to be no question that the search warrant was unconstitutional, but the issue remains whether the officers obtaining and executing it can be sued despite "qualified immunity." That court-created defense is available if the constitutional issue involved was not "clearly established" at the time of the unconstitutional action -- and that in turn leads to debate over how broadly or narrowly the issue is defined.
Permalink · General con law · Comments (3)
suit challenges illinois ban on carrying w/o a permit
It's Sheppard v. Madigan, filed in US District Court by NRA and ISRA. Press release here. Lead plaintiff is nicely chosen -- a church treasurer who was beaten and seriously injured while unable to carry a gun.
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (1)
Enos v. Holder survives motion to dismiss
PDF here. This is the California challenge to the Federal ban on possession by those convicted of misdemeanor DV, brought by Don Kilmer. The court refused to dismiss the right to arms count, while dismissing the others. It found that those plaintiffs who hadn't tried to buy a firearm and been turned down didn't have standing, but allowed filing of an amended complaint as to them (which will be done as soon as they can go out and try to buy a firearm).
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (0)
Gunwalker--House committee tweets President's press secretary
Paper on free blacks obtaining gun permits pre-civil war period
Pdf here. One interesting point made is that in Dred Scott, CJ Taney's list of "horrible hypotheticals" that would follow free blacks being recognized as citizens included that they would have the right to keep and carry arms wherever they went -- but in Taney's Maryland, free blacks did keep and carry arms wherever they went, so long as they got a permit.
Permalink · 14th Amendment · Comments (1)
Acting Director Melson met investigators in secret
Dave Workman has the story. Melson was scheduled for a formal interview later, at which he'd be accompanied by Justice attorneys. Instead he met with the investigators, bringing his personal attorney, on July 4. I think the day is significant. Government attorneys would be off-duty. Government employees would be at home, reducing the chance of accidentally being seen and identified. And Melson wouldn't be on duty, so no one would wonder where he'd gone. I know from my gov't days that Justice doesn't see itself as attorney for your agency, let alone for you. It sees itself as attorneys for the entire government (and at the higher, appointed, levels, as attorneys for the Administration. They throw agencies (let alone acting agency heads) under the bus whenever required to do so.
Melson was in a tight bind. He probably read the stories about his forthcoming resignation as leaks meant to prepare him for becoming the fall guy in this. He was once a careerist with full civil service protection (to the extent the higher levels care about that), then he became SES, with lessened protection, and may even have become an appointee (that I'm not sure about) who can be fired at will. He's about to get shoved out the door. When he goes to the investigators, he's desperate, essentially defecting.
How much did he tell them? I think we'll know soon. He's apparently pointing the finger at Justice, which would mean at least an Assistant AG (political appointee), and very likely AG Holder himself, who certainly would have approved whatever the AAG was doing.
I've never heard of an agency head defecting, as it were. Closest think I can think of is John Dean, counsel to the President, meeting secretly with investigators during Watergate, and maybe "deep throat," Mark Felt, who was Associate Director of the FBI, leaking to the press. And Watergate involved quite a bit less than running thousands of guns to the most violent criminals on earth with fatal results.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (4)
A new Project Gunwalker, running to Honduras
Now it breaks that the Tampa ATF office was letting guns 'walk' to Honduras, from which they could be sent to Mexico from the south. And taking the position that it didn't have to report these to Congress since "Operation Gunrunner" only involved offices along the Mexico-US border.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
Ezell v. Chicago -- major win!
Pdf of today's opinion here. It cuffs the district court, tells it had better issue an injunction against the new Chicago ordinance (and dictates what the injunction should contain), treats standard of review in terms very, very favorable to anyone making a right to arms challenge, rebuffs the City's attempt to moot the case by changing the ordinance, rules broadly on standing to sue, and does a few other things along the way. Standard of review -- early Circuit case applied intermediate standard to prohibition on DV misdemeanant. This ruling does the same, but says that since the people here are entirely law-abiding, it should be a stricter form of intermediate, close to strict scrutiny. City must show that an entire ban on ranges is actually vital to public safety, which it has not come close to showing; all it could produce was speculation about safety. I'm sure it didn't help that the City does have police ranges and also two ranges for private security companies (despite the ordinance saying nothing about allowing private security companies to have ranges).
It responds to Chicago's argument that there are ranges outside city limits with a comparison to the city banning free speech and practice of religion, and arguing that's allowed because you can do both by leaving city limits.
UPDATE: what I meant by rebuffs is that Chicago this morning hastily passed a revision of the shooting range ban, plainly meant to moot the case [I had a link, but it's just been broken]. Perhaps they got word of the opinion that was coming down? In any event, they were pretty obvious. The news story notes, "the city wanted an ordinance in place so appellate judges might be less inclined to intervene with a less restrictive ordinance." It was a television site, NBC Chicago; likely hit the news this morning.
So the Seventh rebuffs the attempt by releasing its opinion, and gets the last laugh. The panel probably recall that the City similarly changed its handgun ban after the Supreme Court ruled, and then used that to argue against an attorneys' fees award.
And here's Josh Blackman's analysis.
Permalink · Chicago aftermath · Comments (19)
Joint staff report on Operation Gunwalker
Pdf here. It's pretty damning.
"The Department’s leadership allowed the ATF to implement this flawed strategy, fully aware of what was taking place on the ground. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona encouraged and supported every single facet of Fast and Furious. Main Justice was involved in providing support and approving various aspects of the Operation, including wiretap applications that would necessarily include painstakingly detailed descriptions of what ATF knew about the straw buyers it was monitoring."
"While leadership at ATF and DOJ no doubt regard these deaths as tragic, the deaths were a clearly foreseeable result of the strategy. Both line agents and gun dealers who cooperated with the ATF repeatedly expressed concerns about that risk, but ATF supervisors did not heed those warnings. Instead, they told agents to follow orders because this was sanctioned from above. They told gun dealers not to worry because they would make sure the guns didn’t fall into the wrong hands."
"After months and months of investigative work, Fast and Furious resulted only in indictments of 20 straw purchasers. Those indictments came only after the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry."
"It was not until after whistleblowers later reported the issue to Congress that the Justice Department
finally issued a policy directive that prohibited gunwalking."
Email from a supervisor: "Whether you care or not, people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case .... we are the tip of the ATF spear when it comes to Southwest Border firearms trafficking ... If you don't think this is fun you are on the wrong line of work, period!"
That's about as strong a statement of "if you don't like running guns to Mexico, HQ will see that you are fired" as you are likely to see in a bureaucratic communication.
A whistleblower agent: "When we hit the ground in Phoenix, say, and the original 40 straw purchasers were identified, and I can’t remember if it is 240 or 270 guns that they knew at that point that these guys were responsible for ... we should have landed on every one of those people the minute that we hit here. And the ones that we landed on that we couldn’t make cases on, at least they would have been on notice that we were watching and they would have stopped buying, or every time they did, the flag went up and we could have been on them then.
And of all the ones that we didn’t land on, several of them would have spoken to us, a couple of them even maybe would have worked for us as a confidential informant or sources, which is how you climb the ladder in an investigation into an organization."
Another agent: "I cannot see anyone who has one iota of concern for human life being okay with this..."
An agent so frustrated at being told NOT to stop a straw buyer's car full of guns that his radio response made other agents think he was in distress and needed help. The buyer had spotted that he was being tailed and there was no longer any reason to hold off and let him get away. "there is a verbal screaming match over the radio about how . . . what are you talking about? There is no better time or reason to pull this guy over than right now."
Agent describes a supervisor: "Whenever he would get a trace report back . . . he was jovial, if not, not giddy, but just delighted about that, hey, 20 of our guns were recovered with 350 pounds of dope in Mexico last night. And it was exciting." Supervisors saying, if want an omelette, you have to break some eggs.
A DoJ letter: "At the outset, the allegation described in your January 27 letter – that ATF “sanctioned” or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico – is false." Another: "It remains our understanding that ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious did not knowingly permit straw buyers to take guns into Mexico."
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (3)
NY Times -- further spin control on Operation Gunwalker
How do you defend a government agency allowing thousands of guns to flow to Mexican drug cartels, so they can be used to kill Border Patrol agents and Mexican officials? The NY Times makes a game try.
Story -- I suppose fiction is still a story -- here.
"In modern times, the bureau, now housed in the Justice Department, is concerned mostly with enforcing gun laws and regulating the gun industry, an unusual dual mission..." Why is that unusual? Most agencies both regulate activities and enforce violations.
"agents of the bureau, using a surveillance technique known as gun-walking...." No, it's not an accepted technique, it's a term invented by critics to describe the insane procedures followed.
"The Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986, for instance, banned the A.T.F. from conducting more than one unannounced inspection of a gun dealer per year..." No, it bans that only IF the dealer has not had a single gun traced to him. Nevermind that traces are not limited to crime guns -- the point is that if a single crime gun in Mexico traces to a dealer, he can be inspected every time one does.
"Congress has blocked the bureau from keeping a centralized computer database of gun transactions." No, only databases established after its effective date, which allows the tracing database.
“They’re left with literally trying to physically follow these guns out of the gun shop,” said Dennis Henigan, vice president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence." OK, so they had to allow thousands of guns to get to Mexican drug cartels because they didn't have better databases? I suppose seeing illegal buys and ignoring them (or even pestering dealers into allowing them) is not a "database"? And that agencies cannot stop crimes if they are not on a "database"? Real cops and supervisors do that every day.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (4)
Gun article on Forbes.com
Hani Sarji, a specialist in estate taxes (and almost certainly a gunny) has begun blogging on guns and estates, or sometimes just guns, at Forbes.com.
Here's his post on the powerful airgun that Lewis and Clark took with them. A rifled repeater, they used it to impress the Indians that they encountered.
Here's one entitled "Let freedom ring with the gift of firearms.".
Only 24% of Mexican crime guns trace to American FFLs
Sen. Grassley says he has the figures. The wording of his release isn't entirely clear, but it seems to be referring to 24% of guns that the Mexican government asks to be traced (which are minority of its crime guns, and certainly disproportionately those of American make). And of course a gun sold by an FFL to a honest person, and years later stolen and smuggled out, would count as a gun traced to that dealer even though his transaction was 100% proper.
So the actual percent of Mexican crime guns traced to American FFLs is likely far less than 24%, and a good portion of that may be stolen. The actual percentages are a far cry from the Administration's claims of 80-90%. But for some reason I doubt you'll read this in WaPo or the NY Times anytime soon...
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (1)
Count on ATF management to muck up everything
They had a plan to run guns to Mexico. OK, running guns to Mexico can't be too hard if there's no risk of arrest or prosecution. But they manage muck even that up.
Hat tip to reader Jim K.
Permalink · BATFE · Comments (0)
Cory Maye gets to go home
Story here. A plea to manslaughter and time served (10 years), but at least he'll get out.