My point still rings true.
The incompetence of this boggles the mind.
Did they not think they were traceable?
If untracability was their goal, they should have shot the gun dealers and all the case agents, all the people at the factory who made the weapons, and every intermediaries in between.
No doubt the ATF is just about the defn of incompetent. That much isn’t in dispute. I believe they thought guns going over the border were beyond traceability. Once over the border they were ‘anonymous’. I think they felt nothing more was req’d once they went south so cleaning up in the states wouldn’t be necessary. In fact the majority of dealers live in fear of the ATF. The ATFs MO is to show up unannounced, confiscate the entire inventory and run the dealer out of money by continuing the case indefinitely. Who wants to go there? So no need to kill when intimidation is already working well.