Another Reason to Love Your Country

Well it turns out that, as many had speculated, that ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) did intend to use the guns it let walk across the border as an excuse for putting stricter regulation on firearm retailers.  

In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. 

ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called "Demand Letter 3". That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or "long guns." Demand Letter 3 was so named because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information. 

On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait emailed Bill Newell, ATF's Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and Furious: 

"Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks." 

This doesn't really surprise me, considering the "government knows best" that has come to define bureaucrats.  However, I must admit that it is rather shocking to think that ATF would use the deaths border patrol guards and innocent Mexicans that they facilitated to attempt to argue that they, ATF, should have more power.  After all, it would seem that these people would eventually realize that maybe they aren't helping things after it turns out that people are dying thanks to their a) incompetency or b) malice towards legal American firearms retailers.  Instead, they look at it as another opportunity to spread lies about the necessity of further gun control and request more power.  However, it seems that some of that pesky truth stuff leaked out, so now it's up to the press to frantically report on anything but this rather incriminating scandal.  If the fact that blame it's own criminal activity on insufficient gun regulation isn't a good reason to be filled with love, admiration, and trust for the US government, I don't know what isn't.

Thanks to Viewpoint for the tip.