An open letter to Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester
You’ve both led in actions in the past to merit gun owner support (see "On the Issues" links, below), notably your letter to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson opposing expansion of reporting requirements for long gun purchases, your leadership in ensuring that spent military cartridge cases remain available to the civilian market, and your warning to Attorney General Eric Holder that you “oppose reinstating the ban on the sale of assault weapons.”
Good job on those.
Unfortunately, you both have at critical times appeared to place party interests first:
Baucus and Tester are two of the “pro-gun Democrats” who, while relying on certain “proper” votes to mollify “single issue”-voting gun owners, have at the same time thrown their support behind the likes of Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan…
And unfortunately, it looks like the demand for open and thorough investigations into the “Project Gunwalker”* scandal is turning into a partisan issue—all leadership in this effort to date has come exclusively from the Republican side of the aisle, primarily from Sen. Chuck Grassley in the Senate and Rep. Darrel Issa in the House.
Why is that?
Are truth and justice partisan issues? What about rule of law, and government operating within its bounds?
Was Brian Terry a Republican or Democrat? Should it matter?
Why are both of you not vocal about this, leading in the demand for testimony, for production of evidence, for cooperation with investigations, and for determining just what the hell happened and just who the hell authorized it? Why aren’t you expressing your outrage at evidence the whistleblowers have brought forward, vowing to uncover wrongdoing, and condemning the stonewalling by the Administration and the utter silence from your party leadership?
So what will you do now?
Will you ignore this call to action entirely? Or perhaps come up with some mere words that appear to give cover, but that really don’t accomplish anything?
Or will you rise to the level of leadership the positions of power entrusted to you demand?
Don’t wait too long to decide. Those walked guns are still out there.
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Also see:
- Jon Tester on gun control (On the Issues)
- Max Baucus on gun control (On the Issues)
- A journalist’s guide to ‘Project Gunwalker' Part One, Part Two and Part Three for a complete list with links of independent investigative reporting and commentary done to date by Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner.
Note to newcomers to this story: “Project Gunrunner” is the name ATF assigned to its Southwest Border Initiative to interdict gun smuggling to Mexico. “Project Gunwalker” is the name I assigned to the scandal after allegations by agents that monitored guns were allowed to fall into criminal hands on both sides of the border through a surveillance process termed “walking” surfaced.
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