Jazz Shaw over at Hot Air just put a nice piece together about the so-called gun show loophole, which is not a gun show loophole, but rather a private sale loophole. The issue here is the federal government and the ATF publish no regulations as to when one must become a federal firearms “dealer.”
Contrary to popular belief, you can’t just walk into a gun store and buy a firearm like you would a loaf of bread. At a minimum, you fill out a federally mandated form and a phone call is made to (usually) state authorities to complete a background check.
Holy smokes! Did you hear about this? The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) had this program called Operation Fast and Furious that willfully allowed and encouraged otherwise illegal straw purchases to happen at gun stores in Arizona so the agents could track where the guns went and arrest the criminals.
This is not new news since Michelle Malkin wrote about the stimulus bill angle with the ATF’s Fast & Furious/Gunrunner program on March 30, but it’s worth a re-post to highlight the fact it was important enough for someone to include it in the Feb. 2009 Stimulus bill.
This is interesting, especially since the Department of Justice was planning to allow Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), to testify next week. Melson – with his personal attorney – quietly met with congressional investigators on July 4.
Jay Carney- the White House press secretary – was asked today if President Obama felt the acting ATF Director Ken Melson should step down in light of the Fast & Furious gunwalking program that seems to have been approved by high-ranking officials in the ATF, and/or the Department of Justice, and/or Homeland Security.
I’m seeing a lot of direct connections being made between the termination of ATF Agent Vince Cefalu and the Fast & Furious gunwalker program. Cefalu was not directly involved with Fast & Furious, and he did not testify at the hearings last week.
Kenneth E. Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) a.k.a. ATF, is resisting suggestions he step down and take the fall for the Fast & Furious gun-walking program centered in Arizona. Bigger names must be involved.
Thanks to Michael Walsh, I found a very good timeline concerning the ATF Fast and Furious program in Arizona that started in 2009 – right about the time of the “90 percent of recovered guns in Mexico came from US gun shops” lie.