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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is inviting public comments on its new rule regarding shotguns. It plans to ban them. There will be a ban on imports. (Note: watch prices rise on those already in the USA.) The basis of this ban will be the guns’ semi-automatic status. It the magazine has more than five rounds, the weapon will be banned. Why? Because the BATF designates these as “military.” Somehow, I cannot see Sergeant York with a 7-round shotgun taking on the Germans. Gen. George Patton wore ivory-handled revolvers. I wonder if these are scheduled for a ban....

Of all the myriad scandals of the Obama administration, there is one, largely ignored by the mainstream media, that could actually be its worst. That scandal is the operation run from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the Justice Department, known as “Fast and Furious,” through which the federal government actually encouraged and even ordered American gun shops to sell guns — against the store owners’ better judgment — to “straw” purchasers who were funneling guns to Mexican drug gangs while the ATF sat back and watched and did nothing.

Of all the myriad scandals of the Obama administration, there is one, largely ignored by the mainstream media, that could actually be its worst. That scandal is the operation run from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the Justice Department, known as "Fast and Furious," through which the federal government actually encouraged and even ordered American gun shops to sell guns -- against the store owners' better judgment -- to "straw" purchasers who were funneling guns to Mexican drug gangs while the ATF sat back and watched and did nothing.As Katie Pavlich shows in her remarkable...

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- Notice of Proposed Rulemaking – The Department of Justice is proposing to amend the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to extend the term of import permits for firearms, ammunition, and defense articles from 1 year to 2 years. The additional time will allow importers sufficient time to complete the importation of the authorized commodity. In addition, it will eliminate the need for the importer to submit a new import application, ATF Form 6, where the importation was not completed within the 1-year period. Extending the term of import permits will result...

Scandal: In a shameful performance, the attorney general Thursday reprised his tap-dancing routine before a panel investigating the Fast and Furious gunrunning operation that got U.S. agents and Mexicans killed. 'It's Groundhog Day, and Brian Terry's family and taxpayers are still waiting for Fast and Furious answers from the Justice Department," Chairman Darrell Issa said before the hearings. "We will not wait until the next Groundhog Day to get answers for the American people." Rep. Issa, R-Calif., has threatened Attorney General Eric Holder with a contempt of Congress citation if he doesn't get answers to questions on Fast and Furious,...

In the hours before Attorney General Eric Holder’s scheduled testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Republican lawmakers Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) released a new report suggesting top Department of Justice officials had extensive knowledge of and involvement in Operation Fast and Furious. The memo, sent to Republican members of the Oversight Committee, was based upon interviews, documents and emails involving key players of the operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The operation allowed some 2,000 weapons cross the border into Mexico and into the hands of cartel...

Over the last three years, we’ve made a number of significant improvements, including policy and personnel changes… the steps that we have taken to ensure that the flawed tactics used in Operation Fast and Furious – and in earlier operations under the prior Administration – are never again used. We also have provided Congress with documents to show how inaccurate information was initially conveyed in a letter sent to Senator Grassley on February 4, 2011. These documents (intended to) ) show that Department officials relied on information provided by supervisors from the relevant components in the best position to know...

Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, PatrickCunningham was to testify before the House Committee last week, then he refused. Congress issued a subpoena forcing him to attend… Senior Justice Department officials have told the Committee, Cunningham, relayed inaccurate and misleading information to the Department (prior to) its initial response to Congress. These officials testify Cunningham continued to insist that no unacceptable tactics were used… Instead of taking the opportunity to clear his name, Cunningham’s lawyers advise he offer only his name and title in testimony. The Drug Enforcement Administration is under congressional scrutiny for...

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. Readers will recall that a little over two months ago, in this same space, I wrote: "I would like to believe that President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder – no matter how much they oppose our Second Amendment rights – would never break the law...

A year ago this week, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered. He died protecting his country from brutal Mexican gangsters. Two AK-47 assault rifles were found at his death site. We now know the horrifying truth: Agent Terry was killed by weapons that were part of an illegal Obama administration operation to smuggle arms to the dangerous drug cartels. He was a victim of his own government. This is not only a major scandal; it is a high crime that potentially reaches all the way to the White House, implicating senior officials. It is President Obama’s Watergate. Operation...

David Codrea published an article today about an interesting letter one law abiding silencer owner received from the ATF. The silencer owner in question owns an AWC .22lr silencer that uses a material made of tangled copper ropes to slow down the expanding gasses, a material not unlike the common Brillo pad or Chore Boy Pot Scrubber. He wanted to know whether it would be legal to replace the worn out material in his legally owned silencer with some pot scrubber material, an act which seems pretty innocuous to the impartial observer. The ATF, on the other hand… From the...

As if Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano didn’t have enough trouble with questions about Operation Fast and Furious, pressure is building on Capitol Hill for Holder to step down, while Sen. Charles Grassley is now asking some probing questions of Napolitano about “sanctuary cities.” Grassley sent a letter to Napolitano Wednesday. Seattle is a “sanctuary city,” where police are not allowed to quickly ascertain someone’s immigration status. The King County Sheriff’s Department doesn’t ask that question, either, but actually likes it that way so that potential crime witnesses do not fear being quizzed about their...

Golden Valley man accused in machine gun conspiracy GOLDEN VALLEY - A local gunsmith is among six men facing a 106-count federal indictment alleging a conspiracy to illegally manufacture and distribute machine guns. According to the July 2010 indictment, George Dibril Clark III of Golden Valley and Gold Canyon and five other men - three from Arizona and two from Maryland - "harvested" serial numbers from pre-1986 machine guns, thereby destroying them. They would then allegedly weld the serial number, or the entire receiver side plate, onto a newly manufactured gun, file the required forms with the Bureau of Alcohol,...

Fast and Furious whistleblower Vince Cefalu supports allegations that ATF Special Agent in Charge Newell just framed one of his own for arson. According to a story by Townhall.com’s Katie Pavlich, credible death threats against one of the ATF agents who blew the whistle on the Operation Fast and Furious debacle were ignored by the ATF. Further, ATF attempted to frame him for arson: Jay Dobyns is a father, husband and 25-year highly respected and highly decorated Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Special Agent.…Dobyns has put a number of the nations’ most violent criminals behind bars, which naturally comes...

Crime: An old news tape shows that President Obama directly contradicted Attorney General Eric Holder's testimony to Congress about when he knew of Operation Fast and Furious. How many times will the story change? An administration that keeps shifting its story is obviously trying to hide something. Nowhere is that more obvious than in the latest revelations about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Fast and Furious scandal, which helped arm Mexico's violent cartels as a means to whip up support for gun control. As the gamy details seeped out and Congress started asking questions, Holder testified to...

Was the new acting director of ATF involved at the inception of the criminal gunwalking scandal known as Operation Fast & Furious? The appointment of B. Todd Jones as acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, hasn't caused much of a ripple – in the media or in the ATF. By most accounts Jones is a stand-up guy, ex-Marine, and in a refreshing change of pace, apparently not known for ignominious bouts of bad judgment. But who your friends are generally says a lot about you, and Todd Jones is a longtime friend and...

As reported on these pages two days ago, Eric Holder lied in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on May 3, 2011 when he said, "I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."   Documents now in the public domain indicate that Holder was extensively briefed numerous times months before the May 2011 Congressional hearing by DOJ officials and had received an official request for an investigation of the ATF gunrunning operation from the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on March 9.  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) has been...

Hoping to chart a new path forward in the wake of the controversial "Fast and Furious" investigation, the newly assigned head of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said Wednesday that "everything is under review" in the way of investigative practices and processes at the agency. “We've got to hit the reset button and move forward," acting director B. Todd Jones said. The furor over "Operation Fast and Furious" focuses on tactics used by ATF investigators in Arizona to target major gun-runners. Launched in late 2009, the investigation planned to follow gun purchasers in hopes that suspects would...

Could Fast and Furious be the scandal that brings down the Obama administration?  With the full knowledge of the Department of Justice, ATF agents facilitated the sale of thousands of guns to Mexican drug cartels and dropped all surveillance of those weapons once they crossed the border.  Weapons sold during Operation Fast and Furious have been used to shoot U.S. border control agents.  Weapons sold during Operation Fast and Furious have been found at dozens of crime scenes in Mexico.  Nobody has been held accountable for this scandal yet.  U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has been stonewalling all efforts by...

I would like to believe that President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder – no matter how much they oppose our Second Amendment rights – would never break the law and endanger human lives in their mission to score political points against gun owners. I’d like to believe operation “Fast and Furious” is just another example of the Obama administration’s gross incompetence, albeit this time with tragic and deadly results. I’d like to believe that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had nothing but good intentions when it illegally helped transfer thousands of guns to violent drug...

Why a gunrunning scandal codenamed “Fast and Furious,” a program run secretly by the U.S. government that sent thousands of firearms over an international border and directly into the hands of criminals, hasn’t been pursued by an army of reporters all trying to be the next Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein is a story in itself. But the state of modern journalism aside, this scandal is so inflammatory few realize that official records show the current director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), B. Todd Jones — yes the individual the Obama administration brought in to...

Scandal: New documents reveal the Department of Justice lied to Congress and show how U.S. officials bought guns with tax dollars and then made sure no one stopped their transfer to Mexican drug cartels. The funneling of thousands of American guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels in the operation known as Fast and Furious was not a botched sting operation or the result of bureaucratic incompetence. It was not designed to interdict gun trafficking, but to facilitate it. We now know that it involved not just the use of straw buyers, but also agents of the federal government...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday sought to distance himself and other senior Justice Department officials from a botched operation to track guns smuggled to Mexican drug cartels, saying they were not involved. The Obama administration has been under scrutiny after revelations that as many as 2,000 guns were sold to suspected gun traffickers, not properly tracked and ended up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico. The operation, dubbed "Fast and Furious", was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona. Congressional Republicans have questioned...

Emails reveal attempts to hide that Gunwalker guns were present at Brian Terry's murder — within hours of Terry's death. Just days after Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Acting Director Ken Melson was forced into a make-work job at the Justice Department and long-time Janet Napolitano confidant U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke abruptly resigned, the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious rapidly gained momentum with evidence of a coverup instigated within hours of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death.Also, the Justice Department begrudgingly revealed that Fast and Furious guns were recovered at the scene of more than twice...

Newly obtained emails show that the White House was better informed about a failed gun-tracking operation on the border with Mexico than was previously known. Three White House national security officials were given some details about the operation, dubbed Fast and Furious. The operation allowed firearms to be illegally purchased, with the goal of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels. But the effort went out of control after agents lost track of many of the weapons. The supervisor of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation in Phoenix specifically mentioned Fast and Furious in at least one email...

...The new requirement specifically pertains to rifles with calibers greater than .22 and capable of holding a detachable clip and that are sold in the four states that border Mexico, including Arizona, California and New Mexico. The ATF will use it's National Tracing Center to analyze the information reported by dealers. “The whole thing is a waste of time,” said Alex Hamilton, president of 10-Ring Precision Inc., a San Antonio-based firearms seller, who brought the suit against ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson. “They don’t need to cause me to do more useless paper work when they have all the tools...

President Barack Obama wants you to believe that America's Founding Fathers were in error when they gave citizens the right to bear arms. The Obama administration and even its Mexican counterpart have manipulated public opinion to believe that the cartel drug wars are being fueled largely by American guns. In support of that spin, they are trying to impose a new regulation that requires licensed firearms dealers in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to report to the federal government whenever someone buys from them more than one semiautomatic rifle with certain characteristics. Obama's Department of Justice essentially is amending...

The Department of Justice says its Office of Inspector General is conducting an independent investigation into the gunwalking Operation Fast and Furious, which Congress is already probing. Attorney General Eric Holder requested a transcript of Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa from their secret July 4th meeting with Ken Melson, acting Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives director. Holder and other DOJ officials have repeatedly said the DOJ’s Inspector General is doing its own internal investigation into what went wrong with Fast and Furious.

WASHINGTON – Weapons from the failed federal operation "Fast and Furious" have reportedly been linked to 11 more violent crimes in the U.S., including in places like Arizona and Texas where a total of 42 weapons were seized. As early as January 2010, guns tied to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosions were found at crime scenes in cities like Phoenix, Glendale and El Paso, the Los Angeles Times first reported.

ATF promotes supervisors in controversial gun operationThe three, who have been criticized for pushing on with the border weapons sting even as it came apart, receive new management jobs in Washington. By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau August 16, 2011 Reporting from Washington— The ATF has promoted three key supervisors of a controversial sting operation that allowed firearms to be illegally trafficked across the U.S. border into Mexico. All three have been heavily criticized for pushing the program forward even as it became apparent that it was out of control. At least 2,000 guns were lost and many turned up...

Firearms illegally trafficked under the ATF’s Fast and Furious program turned up at the scenes of at least 11 “violent crimes” in this country in addition to being involved in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in southern Arizona last year, the Justice Department has acknowledged to Congress. Although Justice did not provide any details about those crime scenes, it has been learned that the additional violent crimes occurred in cities such as Phoenix, where Operation Fast and Furious was managed, and as far away as El Paso, Texas, where a total of 42

There's this old joke about the heroic three-legged pig. A passer-by inquires about the missing leg. Regaling the questioner with the pig's derring-do — saving his life from a house fire, a raging river and an oncoming truck — the farmer finally explains the missing leg. “You wouldn't expect me to eat a great pig like this all at once, would you?” Gun owners: You are the National Rifle Association's three-legged pig. No, I'm not calling you a pig. Please see definition of metaphor. The NRA, though highly dependent on you, has diminished you into a caricature, a punch line....

President Barack Obama has forcefully rejected calls for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign over a controversial federal law enforcement operation that allegedly allowed hundreds of guns to flow to Mexican drug cartels. Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) and the National Rifle Association have called for Holder's resignation over "Operation Fast and Furious," the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives investigation that monitored suspicious gun sales. Several of the weapons have been recovered from drug gangs in Mexico and two guns were found at the scene of the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent last December. However, when...

U.S. federal agents allegedly cut a deal with the Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed it to traffic tons of narcotics across the border, in exchange for information about rival cartels, according to documents filed in federal court. Click here to view the Sinaloa Cartel case document.

Tuesday’s startling revelation by a central figure in the Operation Fast & Furious investigation that he communicated with a longtime friend in the White House about the gun trafficking sting has opened up a new segment of the Congressional probe, bringing an administration denial that the contact had anything to do with the botched operation. This bombshell came thanks to questions from a Northwest congressman on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The entire hearing is available on video in three segments, accessible here, on the committee’s website. This column discussed Newell's appearance yesterday. The revelation first came...

Fallout from Tuesday’s third Capitol Hill hearing into Operation Fast and Furious, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ botched gun trafficking sting operation, will continue thanks to new revelations, one of which came, perhaps inadvertently from the man on whose watch the investigation broke down, former Phoenix Special Agent in Charge William Newell. The four-hour hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, quizzed current and former ATF officials stationed in Mexico, and those involved in conducting the operation. It is getting lots of attention from gun rights activists on several forums including Northwest Firearms, WaGuns.org,...

Washington– At least one person in the White House knew about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gun-running operation three months before weapons from the botched sting were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.That’s what a high-ranking ATF official told Congress on Tuesday.William Newell, the former ATF special agent in charge of the Phoenix field office, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he communicated with Kevin O'Reilly, a staffer on President Obama’s National Security Council, about Operation Fast and Furious in September 2010.

A Joint Staff Report prepared for Rep. Darrell Issa of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Sen. Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee has just been released today. Snip> Of significance, former ATF attaché to Mexico, Darren Gil and his deputy, Carlos Canino confirm reports made early on by Gun Rights Examiner and Sipsey Street Irregulars that not only was this information withheld from them, but also from the Mexican government—despite repeated questioning and objections leading to “screaming matches” registered with management.

The William LaJ. FOX piece on the FBI's perversion of the NICS checks to facilitate the Gunwalker plot "went off like a bomb" in the Hoover building, according to my sources. "Command deck panic," said one, with institutional mid-levels looking at Mueller and Company askance and asking "What would J. Edgar do?" The source answered that question: "Boy, I'll bet J. Edgar is some kinda pissed." He added, "He didn't mind breaking the law, but he was purely allergic to getting caught at it." So, what cabal of mid-levels will conspire to throw Mueller and Company in the Potomac and...

At a lengthy hearing on ATF's controversial gunwalking operation today, a key ATF manager told Congress he discussed the case with a White House National Security staffer as early as September 2010. The communications were between ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office, Bill Newell, and White House National Security Director for North America Kevin O'Reilly. Newell said the two are longtime friends. The content of what Newell shared with O'Reilly is unclear and wasn't fully explored at the hearing. It's the first time anyone has publicly stated that a White House official had any familiarity with ATF's...

The gun walker hearing untelevised earlier today will be on CSpan3 at 7:00 PM this evening. If not on your cable, you can also go to CSpan and watch in streaming mode. Regards,

Questioning about to begin. http://interactive.foxnews.com/livestream/live.html

VIDEO:Obama Orders:Launched Fast and Furious

ATF Acting Director Ken Melson's testimony shows just how far the DOJ has gone to impede the investigation and to protect political appointees.Attorney General Eric Holder continues to duck responsibility for Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed more than 2,500 weapons, including thousands of AK-47 variants and .50 caliber sniper rifles, across the Mexican border and into the hands of the cartels. The weapons were used to murder Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and an estimated 150 Mexican nationals. In May of this year, Holder was called to testify in front of Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) House Committee on Oversight...

According to a release from Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.) his House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has scheduled new hearings into the on going Operation Fast and Furious scandal — this time they’ll be talking to ATF agents based in Mexico: “Operation Fast and Furious: The Other Side of the Border” will examine accounts of agents based in Mexico Washington DC– On Tuesday, July 26th, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will convene a hearing as part of the ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious, a tragically flawed effort that is connected to...

Writing for the Abilene Reporter-News, Jorge de la Isla points out a relatively unexplored implication of "Project Gunwalker": Mexico's presidential election, coming up a year from now, could easily have the U.S. gun policy known as "Fast and Furious" at the center of public debate. Two weeks ago, Fox News went farther than that, reporting that the potential next president of Mexico (as the likely nominee by President Felipe Calderón's National Action Party), Senator Santiago Creel, has advocated extradition, and prosecution in Mexico, of any U.S. officials behind Project Gunwalker. Says Sen. Creel: I think we should at least try...

The Department of Justice is trying to protect its political appointees from becoming embroiled in the broadening Fast and Furious gun-tracing scandal by refusing to release an internal "smoking gun" report that acknowledges the role of top officials in the program that allowed guns to flow illegally into Mexico, according to the head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Kenneth Melson, the ATF acting director, earlier this month also told congressional investigators examining the role of top officials in the ill-fated program that affidavits in support of wiretaps used in the operation are inconsistent with what...

Congressional investigators probing the controversial "Fast and Furious" anti-gun-trafficking operation on the border with Mexico believe at least six Mexican drug cartel figures involved in gun smuggling also were paid FBI informants, officials said Saturday. The investigators have asked the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration for details about the alleged informants, as well as why agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the Fast and Furious operation, were not told about them. The development raises further doubts about the now-shuttered program, which was created in November 2009 in an effort to track guns across...

A failed operation by U.S. authorities, known as Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed the entry of huge numbers of weapons into Mexican territory is also generating expectations given an upcoming related hearing in Congress… Plan Merida was launched in 2008 by President George W. Bush has been continued by his successor, Barack Obama, supposedly as a contribution to Mexico and Central American countries in combating drug trafficking… A Citizens’ Pact was signed in the (Mexico) city by around 200 organizations and public figures, which also calls on the Mexican government to reconsider its anti-drug strategy, which it considers a...

As the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives continues to resist congressional demands that it explore its reckless operations on the southwest border, Mexican citizens, and even U.S. federal agents, are paying the price—with their very lives. Until CBS News first aired correspondent Sharyl Attkisson’s continuing blockbuster series on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Fast and Furious” project, very few Americans had a clue that the agency was reportedly “monitoring” individual criminals as they violated federal firearm and smuggling laws. Through “whistleblowing” by inside-agency critics and journalists, pro-gun Americans have become increasingly suspicious of the fraudulent...