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Brady Campaign underpants gnome Dennis Henigan missing the news?

Kurt Hofmann's photo
St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner

Last Thursday, Brady Campaign acting director Dennis "What People?" Henigan (and doesn't Henigan object to acting directors?) asserted in the Huffington Post that the "gun lobby" has "distanced itself from reality," in suggesting that "Project Gunwalker" was intended to justify more "gun control":

Indeed, the gun lobby has so distanced itself from reality on the issue of gun trafficking to Mexico that it now claims that the ATF's misguided "Fast and Furious" operation, in which ATF allowed some 2,000 guns to move from the U.S. to the cartels in an effort to get at cartel leaders, was itself a conspiracy to justify the rifle reporting rule. In the paranoid universe of the gun lobby, there was no trafficking of guns to Mexico until ATF authorized it during the Obama Administration to justify more gun restrictions.

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Never mind the fact that we have documented proof that "gunwalked" guns were used to justify the rifle sales reporting requirement, as we have discussed--again and again.  We have even discussed the Brady Campain's defense of that indefensible behavior.  By peddling the ridiculous notion that "Gunwalker" was "an effort to get at cartel leaders," Henigan has earned his place among the ranks of Gunwalker Underpants Gnomes (ask Jon Stewart if he has an extra hat, Dennis).

Henigan's timing turns out to have been more than a little unfortunate, because the day after his Huffington Post piece, Patrick J. Cunningham, of the Arizona U.S. Attorneys Office, announced (through his own attorney) that he will "take the Fifth," rather than provide substantive testimony at the deposition to which he has been subpoenaed (scheduled for tomorrow) by Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA), about the Operation Fast and Furious scandal.

In other words, what Henigan refers to as an "absurd theory" is real enough that a federal official is now taking desperate evasive action to save not his career (he is resigning this week), but to stay out of federal prison.  This is not to suggest that exercise of the Fifth Amendment-protected right to avoid compulsion to incriminate oneself should undermine the presumption of innocence pending proof of guilt that is the cornerstone of the American justice system.

The fact that a DoJ official feels the need to avail himself of that protection, though, bodes ill for those who would dismiss this scandal as a paranoid "conspiracy theory."  National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea puts it this way:

This could be huge: The monolithic front presented by the administration is crumbling.  Career law enforcement personnel are in fear of being charged as criminals and are looking to protect themselves. That could mean ultimately implicating higher-ups, as opposed to falling on their swords and taking one for the team.

"Project Gunwalker" was not a "botched" operation--it was a massive crime, perpetrated by our own government, to justify attacking our Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human rights.  And now is the time to hold those responsible to account.

See also:

Just a "paranoid conspiracy theory," right, Dennis?
Just a "paranoid conspiracy theory," right, Dennis?
Photo credit: 
Ronaldo Schmeidt/AFP/Getty

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, St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner

A former paratrooper, Kurt Hofmann was paralyzed in a car accident in 2002. The helplessness inherent to confinement to a wheelchair prompted him to explore armed self-defense, only to discover that Illinois denies that right, inspiring him to become active in gun rights advocacy. He writes a...

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