In Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious, ATF officials who reported to President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice (DOJ) allowed guns to be taken into Mexico via “straw purchasers,” or people who were eligible to purchase guns in the U.S. but were doing so with the known intention of trafficking them into Mexico. The ultimate goal, apparently, was to attempt to track the larger Mexican drug cartels’ gun market.
issa-schedules-second-gunrunner-fast-and-furious-hearing
The problem with this plan is that it didn’t work. Of the 2,000 to 2,500 guns that were sold, only 1,300 (approximately) have been recovered: which means that right now, as I type, 1,200 guns are passing hand to hand between cartel members and others in Mexico.
Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) opening statement at today’s explosive Oversight hearing on the Obama Administration’s deadly program that let thousands of high-powered weapons fall into drug smugglers’ hands. Oversight released a scathing report w/ all the tragic facts about the Obama Administration’s deadly mistake of a program, Operation Fast and Furious. Read the report here: http://1.usa.gov/mySoTv (51 page pdf file)
Here are Representative Issa’s opening remarks:
run time: 07:05
A 29 minute version here:
YouTube – “Operation Fast and Furious: Reckless Decisions, Tragic Outcomes” Panel 1
http://youtu.be/9cYeIswLQms
Larry Pratt, Executive Director of the Gun Owners of America sends the President a letter:
Dear Obama – Gun Owners Of America
http://goo.gl/0YwFS
March 23, 2011
The Honorable Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
You had indicated in your article in the Arizona Daily Star and in subsequent comments that you were eager to meet with the Second Amendment community to discuss potential areas of agreement.
Frankly, we have no interest in negotiating with you concerning additional constitutional rights which you might want to persuade us to give away for no apparent purpose.
We are, however, willing to brief you on what we know about actions by your administration in promoting the sale and exportation of firearms which you knew (or should have known) were bound for Mexican drug cartels.
You may have seen press reports on CBS and elsewhere about a large number of current and former ATF agents who have alleged that ATF encouraged reticent gun dealers to sell firearms to persons known to be straw men for Mexican drug lords. It apparently did this, in part, so it could push gun control in Congress by demonstrating that guns used in Mexican violence came from the United States.
Finally, internal dissent with respect to this immoral policy was reportedly squashed without mercy.
We would like to know who, within your administration knew what — and when they knew it. We would also like to know of your intentions to discipline, dismiss, and prosecute the culpable parties.
As I’m sure you know, if your administration fails to act quickly, Congress has the capacity to appoint a special counsel to do it for you. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Larry Pratt
Executive Director