(GunReports.com) -- Chris W. Cox,
executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, recently wrote, "In all
of my years fighting on behalf of the National Rifle Association to defend the Second Amendment, I never thought I would see
a White House so vehemently opposed to gun ownership that it would be willing to arm violent criminals and endanger American
lives in pursuit of a gun control agenda...."
And now, according to new documents
obtained by CBS News, we are faced with the fact that the Obama administration helped transfer illegal guns to drug cartels
in Mexico to build a case for gun control – specifically, gun registration – here in America.
“If
these reports are true, even by Washington standards this reaches a new level of arrogance and corruption,” remarked
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX). Unfortunately, Sen. Cornyn is not exaggerating.
On July 14, 2010, Mark Chait, who served
as Assistant Director for Field Operations for the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives (BATFE) sent an email
to Bill Newell, BATFE’s special agent in charge of operation “Fast and Furious.” Chait’s email said:
“Bill,
can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same (licensed gun dealer) and at one time? We are looking at anecdotal
cases to support a demand letter on long-gun sales. Thanks."
Just six months later, after a press
conference to announce arrests made in “Fast and Furious,” Chait emailed Newell again, saying:
“Bill--well
done yesterday... (I)n light of our request for Demand letter 3, this case could be a strong supporting factor if we can determine
how many multiple sales of long guns occurred during the course of this case.”
“Demand letter
3” is a letter sent to U.S. firearms dealers in the four southwest border states, demanding that they register sales
of more than one semi-automatic rifle to the same person within five business days.
Under its “Fast and Furious”
operation, Obama’s BATFE had been forcing licensed firearms dealers to sell semi-automatic rifles to shady straw purchasers,
who would then supply them to drug cartels in Mexico.
Many of these dealers were extremely apprehensive because BATFE
was, in fact, forcing them break the law. In fact, one licensed dealer emailed BATFE numerous times to express his concern,
not only could these sales jeopardize his livelihood, but also that the guns he was being forced to sell could end up in the
hands of criminals south of the border, where they might be used to harm or kill American Border Patrol agents.
BATFE
reassured him that everything was fine and that he should just keep following their orders. As we now know, the dealer’s
concerns were more than justified.
In April of this year, the Obama administration unilaterally imposed the “Demand
letter 3” registration requirement. The National Rifle Association is currently funding lawsuits to end this unconstitutional
edict.
“Very clearly, they’ve [the Obama administration] made a crisis and they’re using this crisis
to somehow take away or limit people’s Second Amendment rights,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who is leading
the House investigation into “Fast and Furious.”
“There’s plenty of evidence showing that this
administration planned to use the tragedies of ‘Fast and Furious’ as rationale to further their goals of a long
gun reporting requirement,” stated Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), who is leading the investigation on the Senate side.
Even
Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, recently admitted to Congress that “Fast and Furious” guns would
continue to show up at crime scenes in the U.S. and Mexico “for years to come” – just as two of them were
found at the murder scene of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Ever since the “Fast and Furious” scandal
first broke, Eric Holder and his colleagues in the Obama administration have refused to fully cooperate with congressional
investigators. Now we know why. Because the truth is uglier than we ever could have imagined. Our own federal government willingly
endangered American lives to build a case for weakening our Second Amendment freedoms.
