I would agree that Operation Fast and Furious was a reckless ill-advised plan to deal with the illegal trafficking of guns into Mexico. The acting director of ATF should resign.
But to suggest it is the cause of the trafficking problem or some secret plan to take away the Second Amendment rights of lawful citizens is just NRA fear-mongering.
Many ATF agents will tell you that the root of the problem is the fact that we do not have laws to deal specifically with illegal trafficking. At best, a person can be charged with lying on the form that claims the purchases were for personal use.
The Republicans in Congress, acting on behalf of the NRA, have blocked the appointment of a permanent director of the ATF for six years now and have blocked every attempt to deal with illegal trafficking through legislation that will not impact law abiding citizens.
---------- Post added at 07:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:31 PM ----------
In the words of ATF agents:
Quote:
Special Agent Peter Forcelli, a senior ATF group supervisor in the Phoenix Field Division, stated that the typical sentence for illegal straw purchases is probation. He also stated that suspects have little incentive to cooperate with investigators or “flip” on higher-level cartel members...
Special Agent Forcelli testified that existing laws were “toothless.” He added: “Some people view this as no more consequential than doing 65 in a 55.” He added: “for somebody to testify against members of a cartel where the alternative is seeing a probation officer once a month, they’re going to opt toward, you know, not cooperating with the law enforcement authorities.”
Special Agent Lee Casa, an ATF field agent with over 20 years of experience, stated that the current practice of charging straw purchases for merely lying on purchase forms was ineffective: “I would say generally speaking there is not a lot of bite in the 924(a)(1)(A) statute as far as penalties and time, time that would be served.”
Multiple law enforcement agents who appeared before the Committee stated that their efforts to combat international drug cartels would be strengthened through the enactment of a federal statute specifically designed to criminalize the trafficking of firearms. Currently, there is no federal statute that specifically prohibits firearms trafficking. Instead, prosecutors attempt to charge traffickers with “paperwork violations,” such as dealing in firearms without a license.
Special Agent Casa reiterated this view during his transcribed interview. He stated: “There is really no trafficking, firearms trafficking statute, per se. It would be nice to have a trafficking statute per se or to enhance some of the penalties on even, on the straw purchasers, just to be a deterrent effect … so we can really hammer these people and just put them in jail.”
During the Committee’s hearing on June 15, Chairman Issa interrupted Committee Members who were asking questions of the law enforcement agents that he invited to testify. In particular, Chairman Issa objected to any questions about whether the nation’s gun laws could be improved to assist these law enforcement agents in their efforts to counter drug violence and firearms trafficking by Mexican drug cartels.
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-s...ort_063011.pdf
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BTW, Issa, the chairman of the Committee received a classified briefing on F&F more than a year ago and raised no objections.
The fact that he objected to even raising the issue of the root cause of the problem is just political grandstanding.
The problem of illegal trafficking into Mexico wont go away unless comprehensive action is taking by both the US and Mexico through legislation and increased enforcement funding, not reckless programs that at best, would be a band-aid.