Tip of the 'Gunwalker' iceberg? Are there MORE 'Operations Fast and Furious'?

During Wednesday's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing exploring the tragic, utterly unforgivable tragedies of "Project Gunwalker," it would have been easy to miss one short statement from one of the witnesses. This would be a mistake, because what Special Agent John Dodson of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) said in that one sentence could have some pretty dramatic implications. Dodson, readers will remember, was the first brave whistleblower to publicly come forward with the sordid details of "Project Gunwalker."

As a witness at Wednesday's hearing, Dodson was asked by Congressman James Lankford (R-OK) to estimate the number of firearms "lost" in the operation (video also available in the sidebar):

Lankford: Special Agent Dodson, let me ask you a series of questions, and this will be for several agents. Give me your best guess, and it's going to be just a guess on this. How many weapons do we have in the United States or in Mexico, that are out there, that are a result of "Fast and Furious," that we do not know where they are?

Dodson: Well sir, my best guess estimate at that, and remembering that Fast and Furious was one case, from one group, in one field division.

He went on with numbers, of course (2,500 that BATFE facilitated the trafficking of, with from 300 to 800 since recovered), but today let's look at how Special Agent Dodson qualifiied those numbers: "Fast and Furious was one case, from one group, in one field division." The implication is, of course, that there could be other "Operations Fast and Furious," doing their own "gunwalking."

Actually, we've speculated on that possibility a bit in the past. Back in March, we talked about Carter's Country (a Houston, Texas area gun retailer) that was lambasted by the Washington Post as the biggest "Mexican crime gun" dealer in Texas (the state which, according to the Post, is the biggest source state of those guns). There was even talk of federal prosecution of a Carter's Country clerk. Those charges were dropped (coincidentally?) shortly after the store's attorney revealed that, just as with "Operation Fast and Furious," the store was working with the BATFE, proceeding with obvious straw sales at BATFE's urging. From My Fox Houston:

[Carter's Country's attorney Dick] Deguerin says the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms asked Carter's Country to complete transactions, even when sales people strongly suspected the weapons were headed to Mexican drug gangs.

"They were told to go through with what they considered to be questionable sales. They were told to go through with sales of three or more assault rifles at the same time or five or more 9 millimeter guns at the same time or a young Hispanic male paying in cash. It's all profiling, but they went through with it," said Deguerin.

Operation Fast and Furious, remember, was a Phoenix field division operation. Houston has its own field division. Any "gunwalking" in Houston would be a separate operation.

In fact, as we also discussed in the March article, this kind of activity has not been limited to the southwest. Delia's Gun Shop, in Philadelphia, in the face of protests organized by an anti-gun group, revealed its own arrangement with the BATFE along such lines. As reported in the Mt. Airy Patch:

[Delia's Gun Shop owner Fred] Delia said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) sometimes tells him to keep selling to known straw purchasers so that they can be caught in the act. He complies because he's confident the ATF is keeping a close eye on these people the entire time.

And come to think of it, if the motive behind the Obama administration's "gunwalking" is to build public support for more restrictive gun regulation, why would it be restricted to guns most likely to go to Mexico? "Crime guns" right here in the U.S., and the splashy, lurid headlines they generate, can be (and routinely are) exploited for the forcible citizen disarmament lobby's purposes, even better than those south of the border.

Is "Operation Fast and Furious" merely the tip of the "Project Gunwalker" iceberg? Seems a fair question.