so we have republican-controlled committees looking to find something beyond a remarkably stupid idea here and the usual right-wing media outlets hooting and hollering about it and the ruby-ridge set gnashing it's teeth about the evils of atf even as it seems that the problems/really bad ideas originated with doj and were compounded by a considerable bureaucratic conflict (from what i can tell via the congressional report). the idea was to expose the retail system that supplied mexican-based DTO (DRUG TRAFFICKING ORGANIZATIONS, an acronym i just learned and which makes me laugh), apparently, by releasing a shit-load of guns into that system in order to "track" them by not really tracking them so much.
from what i read, that was a really stupid idea.
and strangely enough, the fact that there is an investigation into this really bad idea would lead one to think that, for once, things worked more or less as they were supposed to, yes?
probably not.
but what i don't really see is why, beyond predictably self-serving mercenary political gain, the right has its panties in a bunch about this. it doesn't really fit with the ruby-ridge/waco set's penchant for frothing about the atf---if you read the congressional report, the atf was en bloc resistant to the really stupid plan and most of the whistleblowers come from the atf. the policy was apparently a doj brainchild, though of course everyone scurries away when a stupid idea reveals its stupidity by being a stupid idea.
and there's little possibility that actually being opposed to the lunacy of the international small arms trade is a motivation.
i mean, tons of guns circulating everywhere by means public and private in a context where the only real criterion about customers is whether they can pay or not---what's to worry about? wars all over the southern hemisphere, particulary in africa--particularly in the congo, the carnage from which over the past decade is unimaginable and invisible to the righteous roger-ailes directed asshats at fox news...not real problematic.
http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/home.html
but this?
problem.
no, while i am pretty sure this plan was really really stupid i suspect there's something pretty base and partisan about all the panty-bunching.