There are those of us who foolishly believed our government actually learned a lesson about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) from their handling of Waco. Remember that sparkling jewel of mismanaged incompetence brought to us by the ATF? There was this crazy guy named David Koresh who was a little over the top when it came to the bible. He had this compound that housed people who believed like him and overlooked his unusual behavior. ATF agents didn’t like him having guns. It didn’t matter if they were legal weapons obtained legally, they didn’t like it. David Koresh offered to have the ATF come to his compound to inspect the weapons and show them his paperwork. The ATF refused because they didn’t care about legalities. They didn’t like this guy having guns legally or otherwise. So the ATF got a search warrant and told a little lie. They said David Koresh was operating a methamphetamine lab. Who needs the truth when you’re the ATF? This little lie enabled them to use military assets when they served their warrant. Are these people special or what? When David Koresh and his followers saw heavily armed men enter their compound a battle began. It resulted in four ATF agents and six followers of David Koresh being killed. Things calmed down for the next 50 days until the FBI assaulted the compound. Fires were started resulting in 74 deaths including 20 children and two pregnant women.
I guess it should be of no surprise to anyone a governmental agency with that type of track record could once again astound the world with their ineptitude. In an effort to curtail gun smuggling to Mexican cartels the ATF came up with a brilliant plan. They would permit weapons into Mexico so the entire drug cartel network would be open to prosecution. It was called “Operation Fast and Furious” and should’ve been called “Operation Dumb and Deadly.”
A few problems occurred with this plan. The ATF agents observed hundreds of weapons going into Mexico. The only glitch was those silly Mexican cartel guys actually started using those guns to kill each other and anybody else they felt needed shot. This increased the violence and death in Mexico by a bunch. Instead of thinking this was a bad thing the ATF supervisors were quite happy. They believed the guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico would provide a link to straw gun purchasers in Phoenix. Huh? Where does the ATF get these people?
“What types of qualifications do you have to be an ATF Supervisor?”
“I graduated last in my high school class. I like guns, cigars and can drink more whiskey than a sailor on shore leave.”
“You’re hired.”
All of this murder and mayhem continued in Mexico for 18 months until a U.S Border Patrol Agent named Brian Terry was killed in December 2010. Unfortunately he was shot by an AK-47 purchased a year earlier by a gun smuggler named Jamie Avila. Avila had been under surveillance by the ATF since November of 2009 (Should an ATF supervisor be reading this the following sentence is known as sarcasm). I hope they were able to trace the gun involved in that shooting back to the straw gun purchasers in Phoenix. Wait a minute; it was purchased by a guy they’d been watching for over a year. Sometimes the brilliance of the ATF can blind a person.
In a March 2010 memo the ATF stated it permitted Mexican gun smugglers to buy 359 guns while during the same month 958 people died in Mexico. If I were a citizen of Mexico I just may be more than a bit upset with such a finding. At the very least I would cheer for the Canadian teams during hockey season.
Many people involved with this operation saw it was both stupid and dangerous. ATF line agents and gun dealers repeatedly warned the ATF supervisors the guns being obtained by the smugglers would end up killing people. The ATF supervisors told these people not to worry because they wouldn’t let those guns fall into the wrong hands.
“I think the hundred guns we just sold to Juan might end up being used to kill someone.”
“Why would you think such a thing? I’m an ATF supervisor and would never permit those guns to be used for criminal activity. You’re such a silly goose.”
“I don’t know about that but Juan just shot two guys sitting in a car, robbed a bank and shot at a police officer before taking off in the policeman’s car.”
The ATF supervisor takes out his cell phone.
“See, we’ll just call one of our friends to follow him to Mexico and then he’ll be in big trouble. What do you think about that Mr. Doubting Thomas?”
“I think we’re the ones in big trouble already.”
After 18 months, hundreds of guns sold and almost a thousand dead people in Mexico the operation retuned indictments for 20 straw purchasers who were known before the operation even began. I would like to suggest the ATF supervisors involved in this operation change to careers more suited for their skills and abilities, like supervising the rides at Disneyland.
I’m sure the ATF does have supervisors who are very proficient at their jobs. They may even have had a few successful operations that didn’t result in the mass slaughter of innocent people. The only problem with this governmental organization is that when they do something stupid, the results are quite deadly.
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