Fox News is reporting that a .50-caliber rifle found at Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s hideout in Mexico was originally obtained from the United States, via the gun-smuggling operation known as Fast and Furious.
Fast and Furious was a project of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Fireworks (ATF) where, basically, some “geniuses” high up in ATF (and possibly the Department of Justice) thought it would be a great idea to sell assault weapons to the violent Mexican drug cartels. That’s right: the U.S. government decided that – in order to fight the Mexican Drug Cartels – we should arm them and let them keep their weapons once they were used in committing crimes.
Per the Fox News report:
A .50-caliber is a massive rifle that can stop a car, or as it was intended, take down a helicopter.
After the raid on Jan. 8 in the city of Los Mochis that killed five of his men and wounded one Mexican marine, officials found a number of weapons inside the house Guzman was staying, including the rifle, officials said.
When agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives checked serial numbers of the eight weapons found in his possession, they found one of the two .50-caliber weapons traced back to the ATF program, sources said.
The Fast and Furious weapons ceded to the drug cartels have been used for other crimes in Mexico, used to kill a Border Agent named Brian Terry, and turned up at the scenes of violent crimes in Phoenix, as well as at least 11 other violent crimes across the country.
Since news of the program began to emerge, the Obama administration has done it’s damndest to keep the program under wraps. Finally as the House of Representatives was about to charge then-Attorney General Holder with contempt of Congress for withholding documents about Fast and Furious president Obama tried to save the day by asserting executive privilege at the last moment. Congress still found the AG in contempt anyway and on Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was appointed to her position by President Obama ruled that Obama’s use of executive privilege was not legal.
Emails released in 2011 revealed that ATF big shots wanted to use the illegal gun sales in operation Fast and Furious to justify a new gun regulation called “Demand Letter 3”. The new rule would require U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or “long guns.” The fancy name, Demand Letter 3 comes from the fact that it would be the third ATF program demanding gun dealers report tracing information. If that’s how then name projects, why didn’t they name Fast and Furious, “Asinine Project 1?”
Fast and Furious was a sick attempt to deprive Americans of their Second Amendment rights by selling guns to Mexican Gun cartels. The program was a train wreck whose effects are still being discovered.
Who said the Obama administration didn’t have any accomplishments?
