House Democrats Urge President to End Stonewalling on "Gunrunner

[humbled_opinion]

Source: NRA

Friday, June 03, 2011

Today, 31 U.S. House members -- all Democrats -- wrote to President Barack Obama, urging him to end Administration stonewalling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Project Gunrunner," and the "Fast and Furious" program under which border state dealers were encouraged to sell thousands of guns to suspicious buyers.

In the letter, spearheaded by Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., the lawmakers called the investigative tactics "extremely troubling" and found the Justice Department's failure to provide information to congressional investigators "equally troubling." Saying that Americans deserve "prompt and complete answers," the letter concluded with a call for the administration to help "get to the bottom of this serious allegation of federal law enforcement misconduct."

To read the letter, click here http://www.nraila.org/media/PDFs/ProjectGunrunnerLettertoPOTUS3June2011.pdf> —and if your representative signed it, please be sure to thank him for taking this stand for strong congressional oversight of this disastrous program.



Read more: http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=6871

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Does anyone know what this is really all about?

Is it simply Partisan attacks against the Obama administration?

Why are so many Democratic Reps signing on and demanding the President comply with this investigation?

Why would a Democratic President or his administration authorize such an ill conceived program to arm drug dealears on the border?

[TomCADem]

1. This Is The Newest Republican Favorite Talking Point...A Sting For Illegal Guns...

...caused some guns to cross the border and be used in a crime, and now the PRO-GUN Republicans are trying to use the tragedy to attack the Obama administration. There is no showing that President Obama was involved at all in the program, and the real question that should be asked is why do Mexican drug cartels buy their guns from the U.S.? Its because guns are so much easier to purchase here!

Fox News was pushing this a few weeks ago, and now it is being picked up on DU. Hey, why not gun control!!! Instead, we are stuck with stings trying to track down these illicit weapon sales.

Let see the Republicans who are leading the inquiries into these charges, and put their money where their mouth is, and agree to some reasonable gun control.

[Kolesar]

2. This RW message has been on the DU "latest" page for several weeks...eom

[humbled_opinion]

3. That seems unlikely

because the letter from the Democratic congressman is dated June 3rd. The question I am asking is what is in it for Democrats in Congress to be telling the President to comply.

[spin]

5. How about honesty and ethics. I know that is unusual for politicians ...

but maybe concerned Democratic politicians have decided to show the way. The Republicans, if in the same situation, would probably have stonewalled the issue. Partisanship is not always good for the country.

[humbled_opinion]

6. How is it even possible that a Democratic Administration

could be wrapped up in this? I could see the loose gun law champions from the Right being involved but never the left. That is why I am skeptical that any of it is even true, Democrats would never go along with this type of program....

[spin]

7. That's why we need a thorough investigation and the administration needs to cooperate ...

If this was an ATF screw up, it should be addressed not covered up.

It's important to me because I am proud to be a Democrat because I believe our party is more honest and responsible than the Republican Party.

[TomCADem]

8. "Al Qaeda Spokesman Instructs Terrorists To Stock Up At Local Gun Shows"

Why Not Pass Some Effective Gun Control And Get To The Heart of The Problem? Instead, you have law enforcement trying to track down guns through the shadow economy existing at gun shows. Why not have effective backgroound checks so that insane individuals with violent backgrounds can't purchase guns?

The 800 pound gorilla is that you have the Government trying to put a bandaid on the problem, which is what led to the scandal and no one wants to deal with this huge gaping hole in our National Security that is directly leading to the worsening violence on the Mexican border.

This is the spin I am talking about. We are focusing on a "scandal" while ignoring the "SCANDAL" that is staring us in the face.

[spin]

9. The Mexican drug gangs often use fully automatic assualt rifles ...

which are tightly regulated under current U.S. law and not only are EXTREMELY expensive but require far more paperwork than the crippled semi-auto military look alike rifles which are readily available at gun stores and gun shows.

Perhaps our government should stop supply military weapons to other governments.

Mexican drug gangs being armed with U.S. weapons

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 8:01 PM on 28th April 2011

***snip***

The WikiLeaks files, written by U.S. military chiefs, reveal that grenades and light anti-tank weapons seized from drug traffickers in Mexico and Colombia were from the U.S.

A cable entitled ‘Honduras: Military weapons fuel black market in arms’ states that the serial numbers of arms taken from drug gangs coincide with those supplied by the U.S. to the Honduran Armed Forces.

According to the Defense Intelligence Agency file, the brands and serial numbers seized equipment are the same as a shipment sent to the Second Infantry Battallion in Honduras.

‘The has become aware that light anti-tank weapons (LAWs) and grenades supplied to Honduras under the Foreign Military Sales program were recovered in Mexico and Colombia,’ the cable said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1381630/WikiLeaks-Mexican-drug-gangs-armed-U-S-weapons.html#ixzz1OWOpLdwj

Drug cartels' new weaponry means war
March 15, 2009

***snip***

The Feb. 21 attack on police headquarters in coastal Zihuatanejo, which injured four people, fit a disturbing trend of Mexico's drug wars. Traffickers have escalated their arms race, acquiring military-grade weapons, including hand grenades, grenade launchers, armor-piercing munitions and antitank rockets with firepower far beyond the assault rifles and pistols that have dominated their arsenals.

Most of these weapons are being smuggled from Central American countries or by sea, eluding U.S. and Mexican monitors who are focused on the smuggling of semiauto- matic and conventional weapons purchased from dealers in the U.S. border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

***snip***

These groups appear to be taking advantage of a robust global black market and porous borders, especially between Mexico and Guatemala. Some of the weapons are left over from the wars that the United States helped fight in Central America, U.S. officials said.

***snip***

The enhanced weaponry represents a wide sampling from the international arms bazaar, with grenades and launchers produced by U.S., South Korean, Israeli, Spanish or former Soviet bloc manufacturers. Many had been sold legally to governments, including Mexico's, and then were diverted onto the black market. Some may be sold directly to the traffickers by corrupt elements of national armies, authorities and experts say.emp
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-arms-race15-2009mar15,0,229992.story

[spin]

4. CBS Evening News broke the story ...

Here's the video from Feb 23, 2011.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7357550n

Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF
February 23, 2011

(CBSNews)


WASHINGTON - Keeping American weapons from getting into the hands of Mexican gangs is the goal of a program called "Project Gunrunner." But critics say it's doing exactly the opposite. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports on what she found.

***snip***

In late 2009, ATF was alerted to suspicious buys at seven gun shops in the Phoenix area. Suspicious because the buyers paid cash, sometimes brought in paper bags. And they purchased classic "weapons of choice" used by Mexican drug traffickers - semi-automatic versions of military type rifles and pistols.

Sources tell CBS News several gun shops wanted to stop the questionable sales, but ATF encouraged them to continue.

***snip***

Then, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered. The serial numbers on the two assault rifles found at the scene matched two rifles ATF watched Jaime Avila buy in Phoenix nearly a year before. Officials won't answer whether the bullet that killed Terry came from one of those rifles. But the nightmare had come true: "walked" guns turned up at a federal agent's murder.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/23/eveningnews/main20035609.shtml

In my opinion this scandal deserves full investigation and the administration should fully cooperate. The ATF definitely needs competent management.

I don't blame Obama for this screw up but I do blame the ATF. It's their job to stop gun smuggling to Mexico not to allow it to happen. How many people will be injured or killed because of the ATF decision to allow the guns to "walk."