Inquirer Editorial: NRA lawsuit aids Mexican drug cartels

The ATF's strategy is aimed at so-called straw buyers who purchase weapons legally, then resell them to gun traffickers who supply drug lords south of the border.

It makes perfect sense to ask the 8,500 gun dealers in the four border states covered by the directive to, in effect, serve as an early warning system for authorities.

But the ATF plan runs counter to the gun lobby's slippery-slope fear of every firearms regulation. NRA chief Wayne LaPierre called the ATF's directive "backdoor rule-making" and vowed an all-out fight.

The NRA also contends the directive violates a congressional ban on the Justice Department's tracking handgun sales in a centralized database. But Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. says he intends to defend his right to track these weapons.

Given the violent drug war still plaguing Mexico, it makes no sense to tie the ATF's hands. That agency and Holder are already under scrutiny for botching an effort to track illegal guns in Mexico, likely resulting in the death of a Border Patrol agent. The NRA is making matters worse.