Posted on 03/12/2012 10:25:43 AM PDT by marktwain
WASHINGTON - The one thing the salesman at JJ's Pawn Shop in Beaumont remembered about Robert Riendfliesh from the day he picked up an order of 10 AK-47s was his military-style camouflage hat.
An Army veteran of the Iraq War, Riendfliesh was familiar with weapons like the Romanian-made 7.62 semi-automatic, capable of firing 30 rounds in under a minute. But Riendfliesh, 25, wasn't buying the guns for himself. Records show they were for "Manny," a drug dealer who had promised him $650 in cash.
Six months later, ballistics tests proved one of the weapons Riendfliesh bought was used Feb. 15, 2011, in a deadly attack on a Mexican highway that left ICE Agent Jaime Zapata dead and a fellow agent shot in the leg. Both special agents were assigned to ICE's attaché office in Mexico City.
On Feb. 16 in Baytown, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested Manuel Gomez Barba as part of an ongoing investigation of straw purchasers who were buying guns for Mexican drug cartels.
Now, congressional Republicans are questioning why it took so long to arrest Barba, especially when agents knew early on about his drug convictions, which disqualified him from buying guns, and were aware that he was obliterating serial numbers from guns - by itself a crime.
'Gun walking' denied
More directly, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, also are investigating the possibility that Houston agents stood by while Barba's surrogates bought guns for Mexico's ultra-violent Zetas drug gang - much like the watch-and-wait tactics Phoenix-based ATF agents used in the now discredited Fast and Furious operation.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Ohhhnoooooez! The rapid fire horror! BANG-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, BANG-three-thousand, four-one-thousand, BANG-......
Bang, bang! Ping.
An AK-47 firing only 30 rounds in a minute?
Sounds like A) reporter needs a lesson in Weaponry.
AK-47s are automatic weapons not semi-auto.
b) Reporter needs a lesson in journalism.
AK-47s are Illegal to possess without a special permit. One simply can’t go to a gun shop, pick out a AK-47 fill out the FFL license and walk out with it.
Freaking simpletons!
I wonder if they have misspelled Robert Riendfliesh’s name?
10 AKs for $650???? Where an I get a deal like that?
Oops my bad. I guess I am the simpleton. I’ll go stand in the corner with my dunce cap on...
Pay your 200 bucks for a transfer stamp tax and you can own one.
My understanding was that once you pay that and take ownership you also subject yourself to being “inspected” at any time by LEo.
Actually semi-auto AK-47 based rifles are common and they are still called ‘AK-47’s. Of course they shoot one heck of a lot more than 30 rounds a minute. I bet I could do more than that in a minute even if I had to load the magazine first.
That would be nice but I think that was just what he was paid to be the straw buyer. I’m sure he took someone else’s money into the gun shop to pay for them.
The soccer moms don’t know that. They will think an AK is about $50 which was the “journalist’s” intent.
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