Former ATF special agent and retired HSI SAC Ken Cates emailed me this update on Operation Fast and Furious yesterday. He told me months ago when this story first broke months ago on CBS that “gun regulation” would be the primary motive behind the operation. He was correct.
Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco,Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation “Fastand Furious” to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.
Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to
suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the “big fish.”
But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous
practice called “gunwalking,” and it put thousands of weapons on the street.
Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder
scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
ATF officials didn’t intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting
Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the
sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation
called “Demand Letter 3”. That would require some U.S. gun shops to report
the sale of multiple rifles or “long guns.” Demand Letter 3 was so named
because it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report
tracing information.
On July 14, 2010 after ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. received an
update on Fast and Furious, ATF Field Ops Assistant Director Mark Chait
emailed Bill Newell, ATF’s Phoenix Special Agent in Charge of Fast and
Furious:
“Bill - can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed
gun dealer) and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a
demand letter on long gun multiple sales. Thanks.”
On Jan. 4, 2011, as ATF prepared a press conference to announce arrests in
Fast and Furious, Newell saw it as “(A)nother time to address Multiple Sale
on Long Guns issue.” And a day after the press conference, Chait emailed
Newell: “Bill—well done yesterday… (I)n light of our request for Demand
letter 3, this case could be a strong supporting factor if we can determine
how many multiple sales of long guns occurred during the course of this
case.”
This revelation angers gun rights advocates. Larry Keane, a spokesman for
National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry trade group, calls the
discussion of Fast and Furious to argue for Demand Letter 3 “disappointing
and ironic.” Keane says it’s “deeply troubling” if sales made by gun dealers
“voluntarily cooperating with ATF’s flawed ‘Operation Fast & Furious’ were
going to be used by some individuals within ATF to justify imposing a
multiple sales reporting requirement for rifles.”
The Gun Dealers’ Quandary
Several gun dealers who cooperated with ATF told CBS News and Congressional
investigators they only went through with suspicious sales because ATF asked
them to.
Sometimes it was against the gun dealer’s own best judgment.
n April, 2010 a licensed gun dealer cooperating with ATF was increasingly
concerned about selling so many guns. “We just want to make sure we are
cooperating with ATF and that we are not viewed as selling to the bad guys,”
writes the gun dealer to ATF Phoenix officials, “(W)e were hoping to put
together something like a letter of understanding to alleviate concerns of
some type of recourse against us down the road for selling these items.”
ATF’s group supervisor on Fast and Furious David Voth assures the gun dealer
there’s nothing to worry about. “We (ATF) are continually monitoring these
suspects using a variety of investigative techniques which I cannot go into
detail.”
Two months later, the same gun dealer grew more agitated.
“I wanted to make sure that none of the firearms that were sold per our
conversation with you and various ATF agents could or would ever end up
south of the border or in the hands of the bad guys. I guess I am looking
for a bit of reassurance that the guns are not getting south or in the wrong
hands…I want to help ATF with its investigation but not at the risk of
agents (sic) safety because I have some very close friends that are US
Border Patrol agents in southern AZ as well as my concern for all the agents
(sic) safety that protect our country.”
“It’s like ATF created or added to the problem so they could be the solution
to it and pat themselves on the back,” says one law enforcement source
familiar with the facts. “It’s a circular way of thinking.”
The Justice Department and ATF declined to comment. ATF officials mentioned
in this report did not respond to requests from CBS News to speak with them.
The “Demand Letter 3” Debate
The two sides in the gun debate have long clashed over whether gun dealers
should have to report multiple rifle sales. On one side, ATF officials argue
that a large number of semi-automatic, high-caliber rifles from the U.S. are
being used by violent cartels in Mexico. They believe more reporting
requirements would help ATF crack down. On the other side, gun rights
advocates say that’s unconstitutional, and would not make a difference in
Mexican cartel crimes.
Two earlier Demand Letters were initiated in 2000 and affected a relatively
small number of gun shops. Demand Letter 3 was to be much more sweeping,
affecting 8,500 firearms dealers in four southwest border states: Arizona,
California, New Mexico and Texas. ATF chose those states because they “have
a significant number of crime guns traced back to them from Mexico.” The
reporting requirements were to apply if a gun dealer sells two or more long
guns to a single person within five business days, and only if the guns are
semi-automatic, greater than .22 caliber and can be fitted with a detachable
magazine.
On April 25, 2011, ATF announced plans to implement Demand Letter 3. The
National Shooting Sports Foundation is suing the ATF to stop the new rules.
It calls the regulation an illegal attempt to enforce a law Congress never
passed. ATF counters that it has reasonably targeted guns used most often to
“commit violent crimes in Mexico, especially by drug gangs.”
Reaction
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is investigating Fast and Furious, as well as
the alleged use of the case to advance gun regulations. “There’s plenty of
evidence showing that this administration planned to use the tragedies of
Fast and Furious as rationale to further their goals of a long gun reporting
requirement. But, we’ve learned from our investigation that reporting
multiple long gun sales would do nothing to stop the flow of firearms to
known straw purchasers because many Federal Firearms Dealers are already
voluntarily reporting suspicious transactions. It’s pretty clear that the
problem isn’t lack of burdensome reporting requirements.”
On July 12, 2011, Sen. Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wrote
Attorney General Eric Holder, whose Justice Department oversees ATF. They
asked Holder whether officials in his agency discussed how “Fast and Furious
could be used to justify additional regulatory authorities.” So far, they
have not received a response. CBS News asked the Justice Department for
comment and context on ATF emails about Fast and Furious and Demand Letter
3, but officials declined to speak with us.
“In light of the evidence, the Justice Department’s refusal to answer
questions about the role Operation Fast and Furious was supposed to play in
advancing new firearms regulations is simply unacceptable,” Rep. Issa told
CBS News.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 12:01AM by 
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