“Since 2006, 14 U.S. Custom and Border Patrol Agents have been killed, most recently Brian Terry, fatally wounded in December of last year with an AK-47,” Brady Center Vice President Dennis Henigan writes in The Huffington Post.
“There is little doubt that more courageous federal officers will be struck down, with assault rifles trafficked from American gun shops,” he declares.
“Perhaps the NRA bosses, and the House members they control, can explain to the families of the slain federal agents, and to those of the Mexican citizens who have lost their lives to drug cartel gunfire, the wisdom of depriving ATF of an important tool against gun trafficking,” he lectures.
While those “NRA bosses” have not yet rallied their members to urge Congressional hearings into “Project Gunwalker”* allegations (unlike the smaller Gun Owners of America and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, both of which have taken leadership roles in advancing investigations), they at least have let their members know about Sen. Charles Grassley’s inquiry.
That's a lot more than Henigan can say.
Even in light of the bombshell corroboration uncovered by CBS News, hardly known as a tool of the “gun lobby,” the anti-personal defense groups haven’t said a word about allegations raised by whistleblowers that, if borne out, would result in fewer guns going to Mexico, fewer lives lost, and fewer grieving families. Nothing from the Bradys, nothing from the Violence Policy Center, nothing from…what’s the name of that weird little Monopoly cartoon mascot…?
Why not?
Since Henigan invoked Agent Terry’s name, let’s see if he’s capable of joining with some of those “courageous officers” he lauds who have put their necks on the block to do the man’s memory justice. I call on him and Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke to issue a public statement demanding full and public Congressional hearings into allegations that higher-ups within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), with cognizance of the Department of Justice:
- Intentionally allowed perhaps as many as 3,000 firearms to "walk" across the U.S. border into Mexico with the purpose of boosting the statistics of seized firearms with American commercial provenance from Mexican crime scenes.
- Instructed U.S. gun dealers to proceed with questionable and illegal sales of firearms to suspected gunrunners.
- Intentionally withheld information about U.S.-sanctioned gun smuggling from the Mexican government.
- Are intentionally avoiding releasing information about monitored rifles found at the murder scene of CBP Agent Brian Terry, specifically if one of those firearms has been determined to be the murder weapon.
- Are involved in covering up ATF and DOJ culpability by various means including the unlawful threatening of current-serving ATF agents with personal knowledge of the case.
Is it not in the interest of furthering the Brady’s purported goals to establish the truth in this? At least the ones they're willing to publicly disclose?
If not, Mr. Henigan, “please spare us the phony talk about the need to” give a Bureau that is so obviously broken even more power and authority before finding out exactly what’s wrong with it and fixing it. And “please spare us the phony talk about” how imposing even more restrictions on Americans who are already obeying “the laws on the books” is just the ticket for curing Mexico’s narcoterrorism woes.
UPDATE: Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars is calling them The Brady Campaign to Ignore the Project Gunwalker Scandal.
Also see:
- A journalist’s guide to ‘Project Gunwalker' 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 through a surveillance process termed “walking” surfaced.
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The Shooting Wire reports on “Project Gunwalker”
From Jim Shepherd’s “Investigations and Findings”:
As facts emerge, it appears that ATF agents actually let firearms "walk" into Mexico as part of some screwball operation designed to see where the guns turned up. The idea they would let this number of guns (some are now saying up to 2,500) "walk" into what is basically a combat zone (Mexico), is screwball enough; the truly crazy thing now the Justice Department continuing to call for crackdowns on legal gun dealers while ignoring a half-baked scheme to go investigated.
Sweet. Click here to read the whole report.
[Thanks to HH for the heads-up!]
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Comments
Obviously, this was an attempt to set gun dealers up for a fall just so the ATF could obtain more funding.
Obviously, this was to play into the President's anticipated gun control speech, but it looks like it blew up instead.
anonymoose, do not think it is not limited to that. This is a agency project to salt Mexico with assault weapons as justification for passing a AWB again in the US. It might also be to justify signing on to an International Gun treaty which would strip US Citizens of many gun rights without passing laws or amending 2a rights.
I really hope that that PBO & Eric Holder press for more Gun Control laws, citing the increase in violence in Mexico. Hillary & Janet both have cited the same flawed statistics for several years now, distributing talking points to the media. How did that go again?
30,000 guns seized by Mexican government
3,000 guns traceable
2,700 guns traced by to the US
2,500+ guns approved for transfer by US BATFE
Let's look at this another way.
If a Syria or Iran transferred 2,500+ large caliber and sniper rifles into the West Bank, would Israel tolerate that kind of meddling? Would the UN not condemn this act of 'fomenting violence'?
This isn't the last time we've heard of these kind of politically-motivated operations going south Google: Operation Dragonfire
The problem is that the ATF doesn't have any 'sexy wins' to substantiate its budget. I mean who gives the 'coat-check' guy a raise every year? Imagine going to a restaurant where a coat was required and instead of getting a decent used tweed they started handing out $1 plastic rain ponchos and called them dinner jackets.
Sadly, a significant amount of Americans are not challenging this blatant abuse of taxpayer money and instead are legislating the addition of 'reflective speed stripes for safety' on their goofy-looking ponchos for the appearance of being civilized.
RKBA is the preeminent civil rights movement in prior, this, and future generations everywhere in the world.
Think Globally, Act Locally.
Another homer, David. Thanks. But to expect these weenies to do anything but wet themselves at the thought of us owning one of those evil "guns" is to believe that the BATFags will actually start obeying the law themselves, instead of stomping kittens to death, causing miscarriages or flambéing We the People to make their agency look good.
Anyone remember "The 5 O'clock Follies"? One of the many reasons the Vietnam War went so badly was the way decisions were made in DC and battle ops in theater were often tailored to fit an already written press briefing that was to be delivered in Saigon each day at 1700.
BATFE has been caught up to their eyeballs more than once following similar process. Instead of catching bad guys, they harass gun shops over meaningless paperwork violations all year and then add a grand finale just before their budget goes before congress. Just prior to the Waco massacre the press was invited to go along on an operation that BATFE called (que up phony Mexican accent) "The Beeg One". In case you're not familiar with how that turned out, read "Send In the Waco Killers" by Vin Suprynowicz.
wow!why would anti-gunner`s want the truth to be heard?how could they lie about the clear true facts?abolish the batfe!
We can only hope the Brady types begin to understand what may have happened here. That guns were allowed to flow to Mexico to provide stats for them to tout in their anti-gun crusade.
How many lives have been lost to these guns, and how many others wounded as a result of these alleged efforts to pad the stats for the gun control cause?
I applaud Larry Pratt and his GoA along with both Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars and David Cordrea here at Examiner for pushing this issue to the forefront. Thank-you.
Although the NRA has not been aggressively involved in a PR campaign, they have been working in the background on this issue since at least mid-2010. I think it's rather unfair to be bashing them simply because they have been working through memo, fax, phone calls, and private meetings rather than more public venues.
Just my two cents.
They have been working with Bureau whistleblowers on Project Gunwalker allegations to get hearings in the Congress about management abuse and corruption?
You assert this with such certainty that you must be able to produce at least one document.
And saying they have not urged their members to call for investigations is "bashing" them?
IMHO NRA has dropped the ball, or never got their hands on the ball in the first place, on Gunwalker, much like they did on Heller and McDonald. This is not news to anyone who frequents this site. And it is not going to change until a higher percentage of hard core radical 2A Life Members starts to dominate the election of NRA board members. And that is something many of the posters on this site, who at least talk like hard core 2A radicals, seem reluctant to help with.
I frankly don't know what is wrong with you guys. Yes the organizations you prefer such as GOA, SAF and JPFO are out in front of NRA on 2A issues, but where is their support in terms of membership and money? It would seem that the radical 2A supporters aren't there either, or that there aren't enough of us to really make the difference America needs. And that's scary to think about. Perhaps Fred (that would be "Appleseed" Fred of Shotgun News fame) is right. Maybe America's hard core radical 2A supporters can't be depended upon any more than the people who show up at Appleseed's can shoot as well as they think they can.
Ask yourself! When is the last time you wrote your congresscritter? What have you personally done to get an "infringement" repealed? What have you personally done to make NRA, the biggest hammer we have in this fight, into the force you seem to think it should be? I have news for you all. Posting an anti-NRA rant on David's site is not going to get the job done.
Kudos to Dave Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh for their efforts on "Project Gunwalker". Kinda reminds me of Woodward and Bernstein with Watergate, except Dave and Mike don't have the support of the Washington Post behind them. I also don't think Hollywood will make a movie about this.
It's telling to note that Sen. Grassley of Iowa is calling for answers on this, while John McCain is silent. That's because he's off trying to secure a posthumous pardon for the likes of Jack Johnson. We need to have the entire Senate looking into this.
@ Ed_in_Sac:
I really don't think that a global gun control scheme fostered by the UN, will become a reality anytime soon. The events in Libya have shown the world what happens when a government like Qaddafi's goes amuck, when it has a monopoly on arms. This is precisely why the Constitution's framers enacted the Second Amendment. The U.S. Senate will NOT ratify any treaty that guts our Bill of Rights.
While on the subject of Libya, anyone else sick of the crocodile tears being shed by Hillary Clinton? She's condemning the crackdown by Qaddafi on unarmed Libyans - but approved of husband Bill unleashing the feds at Waco in 1993, with similar results.
Great to see Alan Gottlieb calling for Holder's resignation. Before this Project Gunwalker episode reaches conclusion, many more voices will be calling for Holder's resignation. But Alan's was the first.
David you and Mike have become MAJOR LEAGUE home run hitters on this story.
I was aware that Larry Pratt was working behind the scenes in the congress to get the Gun-Walker case off to a running start.
Now with Alan Gottlieb taking a stand the message just becomes stronger.
What can I say about the NRA; I wish they were the 800lb Gorilla when it came to supporting a repeal of gun control laws and ousting the ATF but face it they’re insiders protecting the money supply.
Remember Katrina it was the small gun groups taking a stand that forced the NRA insiders to get off the duffs.
The NRA has the money and members because they are touted as the loyal opposition in the media.
Take away the hype and the NRA is nothing but insiders in gun drag
One of my former supervisors once brought one of my complaints to a screeching halt by saying, "I have no shortage of people coming in here and pointing out the problems. You may be surprised that I am already aware of most of them. What I lack is people coming in here with workable solutions!"
We have had our disagreements here before. Much of what you say has an element of truth in it. The NRA falls short of what its friends and detractors on this site expect of it. Yet for a number of reasons some of which you bring up. NRA is, and for the forseeable future will be, the best we've got.
1. NRA has around 4 million dues paying members and many more who identify themselves as members but are not members currently. No on else on either side of the 2A argument has more than 15% of that
2. NRA is a cash generating machine. Its annual budget is north of $220 million and spends around $35 million of that on lobbying. They have been ranked as the most effective lobbying organization in the country, surpassing that of the AARP.
3. NRA, whether through fear, financing, or loyalty, has the ear of Congress in a way that SAF, GOA, and JPFO can't 'touch.
4. To the media the NRA IS "the gun lobby".
Given the above, the imperfect NRA would not be easy to replace. it would be better to fix it than to start over. Go read my reply to Brian K. Miller above. What do you suggest we do to fix NRA?
media matter is posting articles like THIS even after the truth is shining out about the mexican gun debacle.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102250023
mediamatter is blowing the smokescreen the left will eventually attempt to use to confuse and cover this issue.
After following "gunwalker" all this time it infuriates me that anyone with half a brain can consider themselves a journalist and put the term "Project Gunrunner" into a february 25th published article and not have googled your site, CBS, or Washinton Post or the others who are starting to ping on this. The only thing I can think of is that it is the work of intent to begin overshadowing the truth.
Please rip this article up line by line if you have time. Contact mediamatters and demand they investigate the BATFE and get the truth for honest folks.
media matters is george sorros,the nazi collaborater.
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