Posts Tagged ‘Mexico’

Image from the Associated Press

Today, the House voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over his failure to turn over documents related to the ATF program dubbed “Fast and Furious.” In case you’ve missed the news, “Fast and Furious” is the term used for an ATF investigative tactic that involved allegedly refraining from seizing guns that ATF agents believed were headed to criminals in Mexico. According to Republicans in Congress, ATF agents refused to seize these guns, even though they knew they were likely to be used in crimes, because they wanted to follow the guns to the criminal ringleaders. However, an article released yesterday in Fortune magazine suggests that the real reason the ATF agents didn’t intercede was because ATF’s legal advisors – the prosecutors who would have had to justify seizing the weapons in court – pointed out that no gun laws were being broken.

No gun laws were being broken? Considering the recent bloodshed in Mexico, this may appear hard to believe. Between 2006 and 2010, more than 23,000 people were killed in drug cartel violence south of the border. When the guns that are used in these crimes are traced, it turns out that 90% of these guns originated from gun dealers in the United States. Almost all of the guns being used by the cartels had originally been purchased at gun shops in the U.S. (mainly in Texas, Arizona, and California), then passed from hand to hand until they reached criminals in Mexico. Surely, you say, this level of gun trafficking can’t be legal. READ MORE »

The Truth About the Fast and Furious Scandal
Katherine Eban, Fortune, June 27, 2012

An important, in-depth investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) Fast and Furious program, a group of Phoenix, Arizona-area gun trafficking cases under ATF’s Project Gunrunner.  Project Gunrunner is a national initiative of ATF aimed at reducing U.S.-Mexico border drug and gun trafficking.

While most media stories have focused on the allegation that ATF let traffickers “walk” with guns – intentionally allowing criminal suspects to traffic firearms in the hope that the guns or the illegal possessor might lead law enforcement to more serious criminal activity – Fortune magazine’s investigation reveals that ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, contrary to the misinformation being disseminated by the gun lobby and those opposed to the Obama Administration.  The greatest problems with Fast and Furious have been ATF’s lack of resources to enforce federal laws, and convincing federal prosecutors that there are sufficient grounds to seize guns and arrest straw purchasers, cases made more difficult because of notoriously weak federal and state gun laws.

LCPGV commends the Obama Administration for recently adopting a rule to require firearms dealers in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to report any individual who purchases multiple semiautomatic rifles within a five-day period.

LCPGV submitted comments in support of the rule, which will help identify gun traffickers who buy multiple rifles, including assault weapons, for use by Mexican drug cartels.

While this is an important step, President Obama should urge Congress to fix more fundamental gaps in federal gun laws—which allow individuals to buy assault weapons and other firearms from unlicensed sellers without undergoing background checks—in order to combat gun violence in the U.S. and Mexico.