An editorial Wednesday ("Pushing guns") blamed lax U.S. gun laws for the guns, including automatic weapons, flooding into Mexico. Not mentioned was that Obama administration Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Justice Department officials encouraged trafficking of thousands of weapons across the border under a misguided plan, Operation Fast and Furious, to identify straw purchasers who would buy the weapons and resell them to drug cartels. Lives were lost, including those of border patrol Agent Brian Terry and immigration Agent Jamie Zapata.
There is evidence that ATF Directors Kenneth Melson and William McMahon, and Justice Department officials, approved of the operation, despite objections from field agents. "Allowing loads of weapons that we knew to be destined for criminals, this was the plan. It was so mandated," said Special Agent John Dodson of the ATF's Phoenix Field Division.