That same month, in a travel warning, the State Department confirmed the level of violence near the U.S. border: "Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades. Large firefights have taken place in many towns and cities . . . most recently in northern Mexico."
Holder's comments on a weapons ban naturally upset Second Amendment proponents, who always fear the worst when it comes to the government and gun rights. But their worst fears were no match for the misguided policy that would be implemented on Obama and Holder's watch.
A push for the ban never materialized. Holder was no more accurate on that count than he was on closing the Gitmo detention facility or trying Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in a civilian court in Manhattan. Maybe that's all on the second-term to-do list.
What did happen was Fast and Furious, a new operation out of the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives that turned the world of fighting gun trafficking upside down.
Before, ATF agents routinely busted straw purchasers - usually people with clean records who are paid to buy guns and pass them along to others with criminal records - and confiscated any weapons found. But straw purchasers are the bottom feeders in the gunrunning food chain. ATF officials, understandably, wanted to get closer to the cartel bosses running the smuggling operations.
Fast and Furious was supposed to help make that happen. The plan was to allow straw purchasers to make their deliveries, and then the ATF would trace the flow of the weapons.
But one huge detail was left unaddressed: The ATF made no provisions to actually trace the guns once they crossed the border.
