New E-Mails Show ATF Gunrunner Denials Are False
CBS News reports:
Damning, newly-obtained emails show that a key gun shop owner made explicit concerns in writing last year in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ “gunwalking” scandal.
Starting in late 2009, ATF allegedly directed an undetermined number of Phoenix-area gun shop owners to go ahead with sales of thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to suspicious buyers. Insiders claim ATF knew the buyers were connected to Mexico’s drug cartels, but let the guns “walk” onto the street anyway in a misguided attempt to obtain intelligence. ATF and the Justice Department have denied that.
Read the e-mails here (.pdf). Grassley & Co. are not buying the ATF’s assertions:
In his letter, Grassley told Attorney General Holder: “In light of this new evidence, the Justice Departments’ claim that the ATF never knowingly sanctioned or allowed the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers is simply not credible.”
So far, Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who is also investigating the gunwalking scandal, say they have received little to no meaningful response to their document and information requests from ATF and the Department of Justice. Earlier this week when the Justice Department turned over selected materials to Rep. Issa’s staff, sources say Grassley’s staff were now [do they mean “not”? — P] allowed entry or access to the same materials.
“Selected” materials, eh? Remember how Issa issued a subpoena a couple of weeks ago for materials relating to Gunrunner? The date for compliance has passed.
It sounds as though contempt hearing may be on the horizon.
Keep pushing, Rep. Issa. Keep pushing.
Grassley on gunrunner-good.
Gazzer (8353f3) — 4/14/2011 @ 8:01 pmGrassley on Pigford-teh suck.
Sigh…
Even when apparently trying to do something right, they still do wrong.
I applaud CBS for reporting this story, and helping to expose BATFE’s malfeasance.
But there is a reference in the story to “assault rifles” which is yet another instance of an anti-gun lie.
An “assault rifle” is a fully automatic weapon chambered for a rifle round and with a rifle length barrel. No gun dealer sold any full-auto weapons in GUNRUNNER. In the U.S., one must have a special Federal permit to own a full-auto weapon –
only about 40,000 people do, and they are notoriously law-abiding.
Also, no new full-auto weapons may be sold. One has to buy one of the existing stock, and the prices are high.
It is possible to buy semi-auto versions of assault rifles such as the AK-47 – but without full-auto, they’re just rifles.
In using that terminology, CBS is spreading the falsehood that American gun dealers sell full-auto military weapons.
Rich Rostrom (8c0024) — 4/14/2011 @ 8:20 pmWho is going to be sacrificed over at the DOJ?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 4/14/2011 @ 8:39 pmCan I hope for a purge of the BATFE?
Aaron (b4ec19) — 4/14/2011 @ 8:52 pmTravers, the nominee to head ATF, will probably never get a hearing…he’s toast.
AD-RtR/OS! (c21a24) — 4/14/2011 @ 10:17 pmThe current acting-director will be replaced.
ATF will be lucky to be funded at 90% of their current amount in 2012, and they will be grateful for whatever they can get.
What they have done is disgraceful, not counting the lying to the American People, and to the Congress.
They have made a lot of new enemies over at DHS and DOJ, what with the deaths of BP and DEA agents that have the involvement of these illicit guns.
Patterico, did you ever here back from the guy that claimed to be an ATF agent on the live chat the other night?
Have Blue (854a6e) — 4/14/2011 @ 11:14 pmHear not here.
Have Blue (854a6e) — 4/14/2011 @ 11:15 pmI suspect now that he’s a proven liar and moron, he’ll not be returning…
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 4/15/2011 @ 1:58 amActually, the old “assault weapons” ban had a bunch of different criteria. “Pistol grip”, collapsing stock, etc… Having more that one of those on the same weapon kicked it from “rifle” to “assault weapon”.
So it being called an assault rifle by a reporter is actually pretty understandable.
Granted, it makes your average viewer thing “AK-47” when they should be thinking “Semi-Auto AR-15”, but it isn’t completely out of line…
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 4/15/2011 @ 2:07 amWhat most reporters know about firearms could be inscribed on the head of a pin with a cold chisel, with room left over for the Lord’s Prayer. What little they do know they get from repeating Brady campaign propaganda to each-other at cocktail parties. H. L. Mencken would disown the lot of them.
C. S. P. Schofield (8b1968) — 4/15/2011 @ 4:11 amI particularly like the line in one of the emails about half way down the page in which the ATF rep writes:
“We at ATF consider [redacted] to be our alley [sic]….”
As in, “We consider you to be the place we go to take a piss and dump our trash”
Seems oddly appropriate. Is that what you call a Spoonerism?
Jan (b60e19) — 4/15/2011 @ 5:50 amTime for yet more Big Zero admin hacks to go under the bus.
Icy Texan (6d2703) — 4/15/2011 @ 6:48 amActually, “assault rifle” is the proper term when discussing a selective-fire, intermediate-caliber, weapon such as the AK-47, FN-FAL, M-14, M-16, etc.
AD-RtR/OS! (8b1e97) — 4/15/2011 @ 7:25 am“Assault Weapon” was conjured up to damn the semi-auto, cvilian-legal versions of the above.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave…
Bigfoot (8096f2) — 4/15/2011 @ 7:59 am